
Class 
Book 






GopgM . 



CQESUGRT DKPOSiK 




ow Marcus Whitman 
Saved Oregon. 



A TRUE ROMANCE OF PATRIOTIC HEROISM, 
CHRISTIAN DEVOTION AND 
FINAL MARTYRDOM .... 



WITH SKETCHES OF 



Lite on the Plains and Mountains in Pioneer Daus 



OLIVER W. NIXON, M.D., LLD., 

For Seventeen Years President and Literary Editor 
of the Chicago Inter Ocean. 



INTRODUCTION BY 

Rev. Frank W. Gunsaulus, D.D., LLD. 






ILLUSTRATED. 



STAR PUBLISHING COMPANY, 

CHICAGO, 

1895. 






r> 



*;* 



Copyrighted, 1895, by 

Oliveb W. Nixon 
[All rights reserved.] 




DEDICATION. 

TO THE BOYS AND GIRLS OF THE 

Xtttle %oq Scbool Ibouse on tbe TKHtllamette 

NOW THE GRAY HAIRED MEN AND WOMEN OF OREGON, 

WASHINGTON, IDAHO AND CALIFORNIA, TO WHOM I 

AM INDEBTED FOR A MULTITUDE OF PLEASING 

MEMORIES WHICH HAVE BEEN UNDIMMED BY 

YEARS AND DISTANCE, I GRATEFULLY 

DEDICATE THIS VOLUME. 



O^p^ 



PREFACE. 



This little volume is not intended to be a history of 
Oregon missions or even a complete biography of Dr. 
Whitman. Its aim is simply to bring out, prominently, 
in a series of sketches, the heroism and Christian pat- 
riotism of the man who rendered great and distin- 
guished service to his country, which has never been 
fully appreciated or recognized. 

In my historical facts I have tried to be correct and 
to give credit to authorities where I could. I 
expect some of my critics will ask, as they have in the 
past, "Who is your authority for this fact and that?" 
I only answer, I don't know unless I am authority. In 
1850 and 185 1 I was a teacher of the young men and 
maidens, and bright-eyed boys and girls of the old 
pioneers of Oregon. 

Many years ago I told the story of that school to 
Hezekiah Butterworth, who made it famous in his 
idyllic romance, "The Log School House on the Colum- 
bia." It was a time when history was being made. 
The great tragedy at Waiilatpui was fresh in the minds 
of the people. With such surroundings one comes in 
touch with the spirit of history. 

5 



O PREFACE. 

Later on, I was purser upon the Lot Whitcomb, the 
first steamer ever built in Oregon, and came in contact 
with all classes of people. If I have failed to interpret 
the history correctly, it is because I failed to under- 
stand it. The sketches have been written in hours 
snatched from pressing duties, and no claim is made 
of high literary excellence. But if they aid the pub- 
lic even in a small degree, to better understand and 
appreciate the grand man whose remains rest in his 
martyr's grave at Waiilatpui, unhonored by any monu- 
ment, I shall be amply compensated. o. w. n. 



CONTENTS. 

Pages. 
Introduction < 1 1-14 

CHAPTER I. 

The Title of the United States to Oregon — The Hudson 

Bay Company — The Louisiana Purchase 1 5-37 

CHAPTER II. 

English and American Opinion of the Value of the North- 
west Territory — The Neglect of American States- 
men 38-49 

CHAPTER III. 
The Romance of the Oregon Mission 50-62 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Wedding Journey Across the Plains 63-32 

CHAPTER V. 
Mission Life at Waiilatpui 83-98 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Ride to Save Oregon 99-123 

CHAPTER VII. 

Whitman in the Presence of President Tyler and Secre- 
tary of State, Daniel Webster — The Return to 
Oregon 124-164 

CHAPTER VIII. 
A Backward Look at Results 165-185 

7 



5 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. 
Change in Public Sentiment 186-200 

CHAPTER X. 

The Failure of Modern History to do Justice to Dr. 

Whitman 201-216 

CHAPTER XI. 
The Massacre at Waiilatpui 217-237 

CHAPTER XII. 
Biographical — Dr. Whitman — Dr. McLoughlin 238-249 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Whitman Seminary and College 250-262 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Oregon Then, and Oregon, Washington and Idaho Now. 263-276 

CHAPTER XV. 
Life on the Great Plains in Pioneer Days 277-304 

Appendix , . 305-339 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



i. Whitman Leaving Home on His Ride to Save Oregon, 

2. Falls of the Willamette. 

3. Map of Early Oregon and the West, showing Whit- 

man's Route, etc. 

4. Steamer, Lot Whitcomb. 

5. Dr. Marcus Whitman. 

6. Mission Station at Waiilatpui. 

7. Mrs. Narcissa Prentice Whitman. 

8. Whitman Pleading for Oregon before President 

Tyler and Secretary Webster. 

9. Rev. H. H. Spaulding. 

10. Rev. Cushing Eells, D. D. 

9 



10 ILLUSTRATIONS 

ii. Whitman College. 

12. Whitman's Grave. 

13. Dr. John McLouGHLfN. 

14. Rev. S. B. L. Penrose, President of Whitman College. 

15. Dr. Daniel K. Pearsons. 

16. The Log School House on the Willamette. 

17. A. J. Anderson, Ph. D. 

18. Rev. James F. Eaton, D. D. 

19. Portraits of Flathead Indians who Visited St. Louis. 



INTRODUCTION 



REV. FRANK W. GUNSAULUS D. D. 
Pastor of Plymouth Church, and President of Artnotcr Institute, Chicago. 

Among the efforts at description which will associ- 
ate themselves with either our ignorance or our intelli- 
gence as to our own country, the following words by 
our greatest orator, will always have their place: 

"What do we want with the vast, worthless area, 
this region of savages and wild beasts, of deserts, of 
shifting sands and whirlwinds of dust, of cactus and 
prairie dogs ? To what use could we ever hope to put 
these great deserts, or these endless mountain ranges, 
impenetrable, and covered to their base with eternal 
snow ? What can we ever hope to do with the Western 
coast, a coast of three thousand miles, rock-bound, 
cheerless, and uninviting and not a harbor on it ? 
What use have we for such a country ? Mr. President, 
I will never vote one cent from the public treasury to 
place the Pacific coast one inch nearer to Boston than 
it is now." 

Perhaps no words uttered in the United States 
Senate were ever more certainly wide of their mark 
than these of Daniel Webster. In their presence, the 
name of Marcus Whitman is a bright streak of light 
penetrating a vague cloud-land. Washington, with 
finer pre-vision had said: "I shall not be contented 
until I have explored the Western country." Even 

11 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

the Father of his Country did not understand the vast 
realm to which he referred, nor had his mind any 
boundaries sufficiently great to inclose that portion of 
the country which Marcus Whitman preserved to the 
United States. 

An interesting series of splendid happenings has 
United the ages of history in heroic deeds, and this 
volume is a fitting testimonial of the immense signifi- 
cance of one heroic deed in one heroic life. The con- 
servatism, which is always respectable and respected, 
had its utterance in the copious eloquence of Daniel 
Webster; the radicalism which always goes to the root 
of every question, had its expression in the answer 
which Whitman made to the great New Englander. 

Even Daniel Webster, at a moment like this, seems 
less grand of proportion than does the plain and poor 
missionary, with "a half pint of seed wheat" in his 
hand, and words upon his lips which are an enduring part 
of our history. Only a really illumined man, at that 
hour, could fitly answer Senator McDuffie, when he 
said: "Do you think your honest farmers in Pennsyl- 
vania, New York, or even Ohio and Missouri, would 
abandon their farms and go upon any such enterprise 
as this ?" Whitman made answer by breaking the bar- 
rier of the Rockies with his own courage and faith. 

It may well be hoped that such a memorial as this 
may be adopted in home and public library as a chap- 
ter in Americanism and its advance, worthy to minis- 
ter to the imagination and idealism of our whole peo- 
ple. The heroism of the days to come which we need, 
must grow out of the heroism of the days that have 
been. The impulse to do and dare noble things 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

tomorrow, will grow strong irom contemplating the 
memory of such yesterdays. 

This volume has suggested such a picture as will 
sometime be made as a tribute to genius and the 
embodiment of highest art by some great painter. 
The picture will represent the room in which the old 
heroic missionary, having traveled over mountains and 
through deserts until his clothing of fur was well-nigh 
worn from him, and his frame bowed by anxiety and 
exposure, at that instant when the great Secretary and 
orator said to him: "There can not be made a wagon 
road over the mountains; Sir George Simpson says so, 1 ' 
whereat the intrepid pioneer replied: "There is a 
wagon road, for I have made it." 

What could be a more fitting memorial for such a 
man as this than a Christian college called Whitman 
College ? He was more to the ulterior Northwest than 
John Harvard has ever been to the Northeast of our 
common country. Nothing but such an institution 
may represent all the ideas and inspirations which 
were the wealth of such a man's brain and heart and 
his gift to the Republic. He was an avant courier of 
the truths on which alone republics and democracies 
may endure. 

Whitman not only conducted the expedition of 
men and wagons to Oregon* after President Tyler had 
made his promise that the bargain, which Daniel 
Webster proposed, should not be made, but he led an 
expedition of ideas and sentiments which have made 
the names Oregon, Washington and Idaho synonymous 
with human progress, good government and civiliza- 
tion. When the soldier-statesman of the Civil War 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

Col. Baker, mentioned the name and memory of Marcus 
Whitman to Abraham Lincoln, he did it with the 
utmost reverence for one of the founders of that civi- 
lization which, in the far Northwest, has spread its 
influence over so vast a territory to make the mines of 
California the resources of freedom, and to bind the 
forests and plains with the destiny of the Union. 

When Thomas Starr King was most eloquent in his 
efforts to keep California true to liberty and union, in 
that struggle of debate before the Civil War opened, 
he worked upon the basis, made larger and sounder by 
the fearless ambassador of Christian civilization. In an 
hour when the mind of progress grows tired of the 
perpetual presence of Napoleon, again clad in all his 
theatrical glamour before the eyes of youth, we may 
well be grateful for this sketch of a sober far-seeing 
man of loyal devotion to the great public ends; whose 
unselfishness made him seem, even then, a startling 
figure at the nation's capital; whose noble bearing, 
great faith, supreme courage, and vision of the future, 
mark him as a genuine and typical American. 

These hopes and inspirations are all enshrined in 
the educational enterprise known as Whitman College. 
Every student of history must be glad to recognize the 
fact that the history of which this book is the chroni- 
cle, is also a prophesy, and that whatever may be the 
fate of men's names or men's schemes in the flight of 
time, this college will be a beacon, shining with the 
light of Marcus Whitman's heroism and devotion. 




CHAPTER I. 



THE TITLE OF THE UNITED STATES TO OREGON — THE 
UDSON BAY COMPANY. — THE LOUISIANA 
PURCHASE. 



The home of civilization was originally in the 
far East, but its journeys have forever been 
westward. The history of the world is a great 
panorama, with its pictures constantly shifting 
and changing. The desire for change and new 
fields early asserted itself. The human family 
divided up under the law of selection and affini- 
ties, shaped themselves into bands and nation- 
alities, and started upon their journey to people 
the world. 

Two branches of the original stock remained 
as fixtures in Asia, while half a dozen branches 
deployed and reached out for the then distant and 
unexplored lands of the West. They reached 
Europe. The Gaul and the Celt, the Teuton 
and Slav, ever onward in their march, reached 
and were checked by the Atlantic that washed the 
present English, German and Spanish coasts. 
The Latin, Greek and Illyrian were alike checked 

15 



16 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

by the Mediterranean. For a long period it 
seemed as if their journey westward was ended; 
that they had reached their Ultima Thule; that 
the western limit had been found. 

For many centuries the millions rested in 
that belief, until the great discoveries of 1492 
awakened them to new dreams of western possi- 
bilities. At once and under new incentives 
the westward march began again. The States of 
the Atlantic were settled and the wilderness sub- 
dued. No sooner was this but partially accom- 
plished than the same spirit, "the western fever," 
seized upon the people. 

It seems to have been engrafted in the na- 
ture of man, as it is in the nature of birds, 
to migrate. In caravan after caravan they 
pushed their way over the Allegheny Moun- 
tains, invaded the rich valleys, floated down 
the great rivers, gave battle to the savage inhabi- 
tants and in perils many, and with discourage- 
ments sufficient to defeat less heroic characters, 
they took possession of the now great States of 
the Middle West. The country to be settled 
was so vast as to seem to our fathers limitless. 
They had but little desire as a nation for further 
expansion. 

Up to the date of 1792, the Far West was an 

nexplored region. The United States made no 

claim to any lands bordering upon the Pacific, 

and the discovery made in the year 1792 was 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 17 

more accidental than intentional, as far as the 
nation was concerned. 

Captain Robert Gray, who made the discov- 
ery, was born in Tiverton, R. I., 1755, an d died 
at Charleston, S. C, in 1806. He was a famous 
sailor, and was the first citizen who ever carried 
the American flag around the globe. His vessel, 
The Columbia, was fitted out by a syndicate of 
Boston merchants, with articles for barter for 
the natives in Pacific ports. In his second great 
voyage in 1792 he discovered the mouth of the 
Columbia river. There had been rumors of such 
a great river through Spanish sources, and the 
old American captain probably, mainly for the 
sake of barter and to get fresh supplies, had his 
nautical eyes open. 

Men see through a glass darkly and a wiser, 
higher power than man may have guided the 
old explorer in safety over the dangerous bar, 
into the great river he discovered and named. 
He was struck by the grandeur and magnificence 
of the river as well as by the beauty of the 
country. He at once christened it " The Co- 
lumbia," the name of his good ship which had 
already carried the American flag around the 
globe. He sailed several miles up the river, 
landed and took possession in the name of the 
United States. 

It is a singu ar coincidence that both Spain 
and England had vessels just at this time on this 



18 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

coast, hunting for the same river, and so near to- 
gether as to be in hailing distance of each other. 
Captain Gray only a few days before had met 
Captain Vancouver, the Englishman, and had 
spoken with him. Captain Vancouver had sailed 
over the very ground passed over soon after by 
Gray, but failed to find the river. He had noted 
too, a change in the color of the waters, but it did 
not sufficiently impress him to cause an investi- 
gation. 

After Captain Gray had finished his explora- 
tion and gone to sea, he again fell in with Van- 
couver and reported the result of his discover- 
ies. Vancouver immediately turned about, found 
the mouth of the river, sailed up the Columbia 
to the rapids and up the Willamette to near the 
falls. 

In the conference between the English and 
Americans in 1827, which resulted in the renewal 
of the treaty of 1818, while the British commis- 
sioners acknowledged that Gray was first to dis- 
cover and enter the Columbia river, yet they de- 
manded that '' he should equally share the honor 
with Captain Vancouver." They claimed that 
Avhile Gray discovered the mouth of the river, 
he only sailed up it a few miles, while " Captain 
Vancouver made a full and complete discov- 
ery." One of the authorities stated concisely 
that, "Captain Gray's claim is limited to the 
mouth of the river." 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 19 

This limit was in plain violation of the rules 
regulating all such events, and no country knew 
it better than England. Besides, it was Captain 
Gray's discovery, told to the English commander 
Vancouver, which made him turn back on his 
course to rediscover the same river. The claim 
that the English made, that "Captain Gray 
made but a single step in the progress of dis- 
covery," in the light of these facts, marks their 
claims as remarkably weak. The right of dis- 
covery was then the first claim made by the 
United States upon Oregon. 

The second was by the Louisiana purchase 
from France in 1803. This was the same terri- 
tory ceded from France to Spain in 1762 and re- 
turned to France in 1800, and sold to the United 
States for $15,000,000 in 1803, "with all its rights 
and appurtenances, as fully and in the same 
manner as they were acquired by the French Re- 
public." 

There has always been a dispute as to how 
far into the region of the northwest this claim 
of the French extended. In the sale no paral- 
lels were given ; but it was claimed that their 
rights reached to the Pacific Ocean. Dr. Bar- 
rows says, " If, however, the claims of France 
failed to reach the Pacific on the parallel of 49 
degrees, it must have been because they en- 
countered the old claims of Spain, that preceded 
the Nootka treaty and were tacitly conceded by 



20 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

England. Between the French claims and the 
Spanish claims there was left no territory for 
England to base a claim on. If the United 
States did not acquire through to the Pacific in 
the Lousiana purchase, it was because Spain was 
owner of the territory prior to the first, second 
and third transfers. It is difficult to perceive 
standing ground for the English in either of the 
claims mentioned. 

The claim of England that the Nootka treaty 
of 1790 abrogated the rights of Spain to the 
territory of Oregon, which she then held, is un- 
tenable, from the fact that no right of sover- 
eignty or jurisdiction was conveyed by that 
treaty. Whatever right Spain had prior to that 
treaty was not disturbed, and all legal rights in- 
vested in Spain were still in force when she 
ceded the territory to France in 1S00 and also 
when France ceded the same to the United 
States in 1803. 

The third claim of the United States was by 
the commission sent out by Jefferson in 1803, 
when Lewis and Clark and their fellow voyagers 
struck the head waters of the Columbia and fol- 
lowed it to its mouth and up its tributary rivers. 

The fourth was the actual settlement of the 
Astor Fur Company at Astoria in 181 1. True it 
was a private enterprise, but was given the sanc- 
tion of the United States and a U. S. Naval 
Officer was allowed to command the leading 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 21 

vessel in Astor's enterprise, thus placing the seal 
of nationality upon it. True the town was cap- 
tured and the effects confiscated in 1812 by the 
British squadron of the Pacific, commanded by 
Captain Hillyar, but the fact of actual settle- 
ment by Americans at Astoria, even for a short 
time, had its value in the later argument. In 
the treaty of Ghent with England in 1814, As- 
toria, with all its rights was ordered to be restored 
to its original owners, but even this was not con- 
summated until 1846. 

America's fifth claim was in her treaty with 
Spain in 1818, when Spain relinquished any and 
all claims to the territory in dispute to the United 
States. 

The sixth and last claim was from Mexico, 
by a treaty in 1828, by which the United States 
acquired all interest Mexico claimed, formerly in 
common with Spain, but now under her own 
government. 

Such is a brief statement, but I trust a sufficient 
one, for an intelligent understanding of the ques- 
tions of ownership. 

It will be seen that the United States was 
vested in all the rights held over Oregon by 
every other power except one, that of Great 
Britain. Her claim rested, as we have seen, in 
the fact that " Captain Gray only discovered the 
mouth of the River," but did not survey it to the 
extent that the English Captain Vancouver 



22 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

did, after being told by Gray of his discovery. 
They also made claims of settlement by their 
Fur Company, just as the United States did by 
the settlement made by Astor and others. As 
the Hudson Bay Company and the Northwest 
Fur Company of Montreal figure so extensively 
in the contest for English ownership of Oregon, 
it is well to have a clear idea of their origin and 
power. 

The Hudson Bay Company was organized in 
1670 by Charles II, with Prince Rupert, the King's 
cousin at its head, with other favorites of his 
Court. They were invested with remarkable 
powers, such as had never before, nor have since, 
beengrantedto a corporation. They were granted 
absolute proprietorship, with subordinate sover- 
eignty, over all that country known by name of 
" Rupert's Land " including all regions " discov- 
ered or undiscovered within the entrance to 
Hudson Strait." It was by far the largest of all 
English dependencies at that time. 

For more than a century the company con- 
fined its active operations to a coast traffic. 

The original stock of this company was 
$50,820. During the first fifty years the capital 
stock was increased to $457,000 wholly out of the 
profits, besides paying dividends. 

During the last half of the 17th Century the 
Northwest Fur Company became a formidable 
opponent to the Hudson Bay Company, and the 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 26 

rivalry and great wealth of both companies 
served to stimulate them to reach out toward 
the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. 

After Canada had become an English de- 
pendency and the competition had grown into 
such proportions as to interfere with the great 
monopoly, in the year 182 1, there was a coalition 
between the Northwest and the Hudson Bay 
Companies on a basis of equal value, and the 
consolidated stock was marked at $1,916,000, 
every dollar of which was profits, as was shown 
at the time, except the original stock of both 
companies which amounted to about $135,000. 
And yet during all this period there had been 
made an unusual dividend to stockholders of 10 
per cent. 

Single vessels from headquarters carried furs 
to London valued at from three to four hundred 
thousand dollars. It is not at all strange that a 
company which was so rolling in wealth and 
which was in supreme control of a territory 
reaching through seventy-five degrees of longi- 
tude, from Davis Strait to Mt. Saint Elias, and 
through twenty-eight degrees of latitude from 
the mouth of the Mackenzie to the California 
border, should hold tenaciously to its privileges. 

It was a grand monopoly, but it must be said 
of it that no kingly power ever ruled over savage 
subjects with such wisdom and discretion. Of 
necessity, they treated their savage workmen 



24 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

kindly, but they managed to make them fill the 
coffers of the Hudson Bay Company with a 
wealth of riches, as the years came and went. 
Their lives and safety and profits all depended 
upon keeping their dependents in a good humor 
and binding them to themselves. The leading 
men of the company were men of great business 
tact and shrewdness, and one of their chief 
requisites was to thoroughly understand Indian 
character. 

They managed year by year so to gain con- 
trol of the savage tribes that the factor of a 
trading post had more power over a fractious 
band, than could have been exerted by an army 
of men with guns and bayonets. If, now and 
then, a chief grew sullen and belligerent, he was 
at once quietly bought up by a judicious present, 
and the company got it all back many times over 
from the tribe, when their furs were marketed. 

It was the refusal of the missionaries of Ore^ 
gon to condone crime and wink at savage meth- 
ods, as the Hudson Bay Company did, which first 
brought about misunderstanding and unpleasant- 
ness, as we shall see in another place. 

It was this power and controlling influence 
which met the pioneer fur traders and mission- 
aries, upon entering Oregon. They controlled 
the savage life and the white men there were 
wholly dependent upon them. 

In iSii an American Fur Company at Asto- 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 25 

ria, undertook to open business upon what they 
regarded as American soil. They had scarcely 
settled down to work when the war of 1S12 be- 
gan and they were speedily routed. 

In 1818 a treaty was made which said, "It is 
agreed that any country that may be claimed 
by either party on the Northwest coast of Amer- 
ica westward of the Stony Mountains shall, to- 
gether with its harbors, bays, creeks and the 
navigation of all rivers within the same, be free 
and open for ten years from the date of the sig- 
nature of the present convention, to the vessels, 
citizens, and subjects of the two powers; it being 
well understood that the agreement is not to be 
construed to the prejudice of any claim which 
either of the two high contracting parties may 
have to any part of said country; nor shall it be 
taken to affect the claims of any other power or 
state to any of said country; the only object of 
the high contracting parties in that respect being 
to prevent disputes and differences among them- 
selves." 

That looked fair and friendly enough. But 
how did the Hudson Bay Company carry it out? 
They went on just as they had done before, gov- 
erning to suit their own selfish interests. They 
froze out and starved out every American Fur 
Company that dared to settle in any portion of 
their territory. They fixed the price of every 
commodity, and had such a hold on the various 



26 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

tribes that a foreign company had no chance to 
live and prosper. 

It so continued until the ten year limit was 
nearly up, when in 1827 the commission repre- 
senting the two powers met and re-enacted the 
treaty of 1818, which went into effect in 1828. It 
was a giant monopoly, but dealing as it did with 
savage life, and gathering its wealth from sources 
which had never before contributed to the 
world's commerce, it was allowed to run its course 
until it came in contact with the advancing civil- 
ization of the United States, and was worsted in 
the conflict. 

With the adoption of the Ashburton treaty 
the Hudson Bay Company was shorn of much of 
its kingly power and old time grandeur. But it 
remained a money making organization. Under 
the terms of the treaty the great corporation 
was fully protected. This Ashburton treaty was 
written in England and from English stand- 
points, and every property and possessory right 
of this powerful Company was strictly guarded. 
The interests of the company were made English 
interests. 

Under this treaty the Un.ted States agreed to 
pay all valuations upon Hudson Bay Company 
property south of forty-nine degrees; while Eng- 
land was to make a settlement for all above that 
line. The company promptly sent in a bill to 
the United States for $3,882,036.27, while their 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 27 

dependent company, the Puget Sound Agricul- 
tural Company, sent in a more modest demand 
for $1,168,000. These bills were in a state of 
liquidation until 1864, when the United States 
made a final settlement, and paid the Hudson 
Bay Company $450,000 and the Puget Sound 
Company $200,000. 

They also, at the time of presenting bills to 
the United States, presented one to England for 
$4,990,036.07. In 1869 the English government 
settled the claim by paying $1,500,000. This 
amount was paid from the treasury of the Do- 
minion of Canada, and all the vast territory 
north of. 49° came under the government of the 
Dominion. It was, however, stipulated and 
agreed that the company should retain all its 
forts, with ten acres of ground surrounding each, 
together with one-twentieth of all the land from 
the Red River to the Rocky Mountains, besides 
valuable blocks of land to which it laid special 
claim. 

The company goes on trading as of old; its 
organization is still complete; it still makes large 
dividends of about $400,000 per year, and has 
untold prospective wealth in its lands, which are 
the best in the Dominion. 

Among the most interesting facts connected 
with our title to Oregon are those in connection 
with the Louisiana purchase by the United States 
from France in 1803. Many readers of current 



28 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

history have overlooked the fact, that it was 
wholly due to England, and her over-weening 
ambition, that the United States was enabled to 
buy the great Domain Letters, which have re- 
cently been published, which, written by 
those closest to the high contracting parties, re- 
vealed the romance, and the inside .facts of this 
great deal, perhaps the most important the 
United States ever made, and made so speedily 
as to dazzle the Nation. 

Few take in the fact that the "Louisiana 
Purchase" meant not only the rich state at the 
mouth of our great river, but also, Arkansas, 
Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, 
Montana, Idaho, Oregon, with probably the two 
Dakotas. Roughly estimated it was a claim by 
a foreign power upon our continent to territory 
of over 900,000 square miles. 

At the time, but little was thought of its value 
save and except the getting possession of the 
rich soil of Louisiana for the purposes of the 
Southern planter, and being able to own and 
control the mouth of our great river upon which, 
at that, time, all the states of the North and West 
were wholly dependent for their commerce. 

While Napoleon and the French Government 
were upon the most friendly terms with the 
United States, and conceded to our commerce 
the widest facilities, yet there was a lurking fear 
that such conditions might at any time change. 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 29 

The desirability of obtaining such possession had 
often been canvassed, with scarcely a ray of 
hope for its consummation. The United States 
was poor, and while the South and the West 
were deeply interested, the East, which held the 
balance of power, was determinedly set against 
it. The same narrow statesmanship existed 
then, which later on undervalued all our posses- 
sions beyond the Stony Mountains, and was will- 
ing and even anxious that they should pass into 
ths possession of a foreign power. 

France acquired this vast property from Spain 
in 1800. In March, 1802, there was a great treaty 
entered into between France on one side and 
Great Britain, Spain and the Batavian Republic 
on the other. It was known as "The Amiens 
Treaty." It was a short-lived treaty which was 
hopelessly ruptured in 1803. 

England, foreseeing the rupture, had not de- 
layed to get ready for the event. Then as now, 
she was, "Mistress upon the high seas," and set 
about arranging to seize everything afloat that 
carried the French flag. Her policy was soon 
made plain, and that was to first make war upon 
all French dependencies. 

No man knew better than Napoleon how 
powerless he would be to make any successful 
defense. His treasury was well nigh bankrupt 
and he must have money for home defense as 
soon as the victorious army of the enemy should 



30 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

return from the Mississippi campaign, which he 
foresaw. While the treaty of Amiens was not 
really abrogated until May, 1803, yet upon Janu- 
ary 1, 1803, the whole matter was well under- 
stood by Napoleon and his advisors. 

Early in that month the government received 
.squieting news from Admiral Villeneuve who 
was in command of the French fleet in West 
India waters. It plainly stated that it was un- 
doubtedly the fact that the first blow of the En- 
glish would be made at New Orleans. 

This knowledge was promptly conveyed to 
the American Minister Monroe, well knowing 
that the United States was almost as much inter- 
ested in the matter as France was, as it would 
stop all traffic from all the States along the Ohio 
and Mississippi rivers, and be a death blow to 
American prosperity for an indefinite period. 
The recently published letters, already referred 
to, say of the conference between Minister Mon- 
roe and Bonaparte: 

" Unfortunately Mr. Monroe at this time did 
not understand the French language well enough 
to follow a speaker who talked as rapidly as did 
Bonaparte, and the intervention of .an inter- 
preter was necessary. ' We are not able alone 
to defend the colony of Louisiana,' the First Con- 
sul began. ' Your new regions of the southwest 
are nearly as deeply interested in its remaining 
in friendly hands as we are in holding it. Our 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 31 

fleet is not equal to the needs of the French 
Nation. Can you not help us to defend the 
mouth of the Mississippi river?' 

' We could not take such a step without a 
treaty, offensive and defensive,' the American 
answered. ' Our Senate really is the treaty- 
making power. It is against us. The President, 
Mr. Jefferson, is my friend as well as my superior 
officer. Tell me, General, what you have in your 
mind.' 

Bonaparte walked the room, a small private 
consulting cabinet adjoining the Salles des Am- 
bassadeurs. He had his hands clasped behind 
him, his head bent forward — his usual position 
when in deep thought. ' I acquired the great 
territory to which the Mississippi mouth is the 
entrance,' he finally began, ' and I have the 
right to dispose of my own. France is not able 
now to hold it. Rather than see it in England's 
hands, I donate it to America. Why will your 
country not buy it from France?' There Bona- 
parte stopped. Mr. Monroe's face was like a 
flame. What a diplomatic feat it would be for 
him! What a triumph for the administration of 
Jefferson to add such a territory to the national 
domain! 

No man living was a better judge of his fel- 
lows than Bonaparte. He read the thoughts of 
the man before him as though they were on a 
written scroll. He saw the emotions of his soul. 



32 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

' Well, what do you think of it?' said General 
Bonaparte. 

'The matter is so vast in its direct relations 
to my country and what may result from it, that 
it dazes me,' the American answered. 'But the 
idea is magnificent. It deserves to emanate from 
a mind like yours.' The First Consul bowedlow. 
Monroe never flattered, and the look of truth 
was in his eyes, its ring in his voice. 'I must 
send a special communication at once touching 
this matter to President Jefferson. My messen- 
ger must take the first safe passage to America.' 

'The Blonde, the fastest ship in our navy, 
leaves Brest at once with orders for the West 
Indian fleet, I will detain her thirty-six hours, 
till your dispatches are ready,' the First Consul 
said. 'Your messenger shall go on our ship.' 

'How much shall I say the territory will cost 
us?' The great Corsican — who was just ending 
the audience, which had been full two hours 
long — came up to the American Minister. After 
a moment he spoke again. ' Between nations 
who are really friends there need be no chaffer- 
ing. Could I defend this territory, not all the 
gold of the world would buy it. But I am giving 
to a friend what I am unable to keep. I need 
100,000,000 francs in coin or its equivalent. 
Whatever action we take must be speedy. Above 
all, let there be absolute silence and secrecy,' 
and Bonaparte bowed our minister out. The 




o 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 33 

audience was ended. The protracted audience 
between Napoleon and the American Minister 
was such as to arouse gossip, but the secret was 
safe in the hands of the two men, both of 
whom were statesmen and diplomats who knew 
the value of secrecy in such an emergency. 

The profoundly astonishing dispatches reach- 
ed President Jefferson promptly. He kept it a 
secret until he could sound a majority of the 
Senators and be assured of the standing of such 
a proposition. 

The main difficulty that was found would be 
in raising the 75,000,000 francs it was proposed 
to give. In those days, with a depleted treasury, 
it was a large sum of money. The United States 
had millions of unoccupied acres, but had few 
millions in cash in its treasury. But our states- 
men, to their great honor, proved equal to the 
emergency. Through the agency of Stephen 
Girard as financier in chief, the loan necessary 
was negotiated through the Dutch House of 
Hapes in Amsterdam, and the money paid to 
France, and the United States entered into pos- 
session of the vast estate." 

This much of the w^ell-nigh forgotten history 
we have thought appropriate to note in this 
connection; first, because of the new light given 
to it from the recent disclosures made; and, 
second, to call attention to the fact that a second 



34 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

time, forty-three years later, it served a valiant 
purpose in thwarting English ambition and serv- 
ing America's highest interests. 

Estimated from the standpoint of money and 
material values, it was a great transaction, espe- 
cially notable in view of existing conditions, but 
from the standpoint of State and National gran- 
deur, carrying with it peace and hope and hap- 
piness to millions, and continuous rule of the 
Republic from ocean to ocean, it assumes a 
greatness never surpassed in a single transaction, 
and not easily over-estimated, and never in the 
history of the English people did a single tran- 
saction, with dates so widely separated, arise, and 
so effectually check their imperious demands. 

The American Republic may well remember 
with deep gratitude President Jefferson, and 
the far-seeing statesmen who rallied to his call 
and consummated the grand work. They can at 
the same time see the foresight and wisdom of 
Jefferson in, at once, the very next year, sending 
the expedition of Lewis and Clarke to the head- 
waters of the Columbia River, and causing a com- 
plete survey to be made to its mouth. It was a 
complete refutation of the claim of the English 
Commissioners, in 1837, that while "Captain Gray 
only discovered the mouth of the river, Captain 
Vancouver made a complete survey." The Amer- 
ican mistake was, not in the purchase and active 
work then done, but the lassitude and inexcusable 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 35 

neglect in the forty subsequent years which im- 
periled every interest the Republic held in the 
territory beyond the Rocky Mountains. 

When the treaty of 1846 was signed, it was 
hoped that the questions at issue were settled 
forever; but the Hudson Bay Company was slow 
to surrender its grasp on any of the territory it 
could hold, and especially one so rich in all ma- 
terials that constituted its wealth and power. 

The treaty of 1846 between the United States 
and Great Britain read: 

"From the point on the 49th parallel to the 
middle of the channel which separates the conti- 
nent from Vancouver's Island and thence south- 
erly through the middle of said channel and of 
the Fuca Straits, to the Pacific Ocean, provided, 
however, that the navigation of such channel 
and straits south of the latitude 40 remain 
free and open to both parties." 

This led to after trouble and much ill feeling. 
The passage referred to in the treaty is about 
seven miles wide, between the archipelago and 
Vancouver Island. The archipelago is made 
up of half a dozen principal islands and many 
smaller ones. The largest island, San Juan, con- 
tained about 50,000 acres, and the Hudson Bay 
Company, knowing something of its value, had 
taken possession, and proposed to hold it. The 
legislature of Oregon, however, included it in 
Island County by an act of 1852, which passed to 



36 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

the Territory of Washington in 1853 by the di- 
vision of Oregon. In 1854 the Collector of Cus- 
toms for the Puget Sound came in conflict with 
the Hudson Bay authorities and a lively row was. 
raised. 

The Hudson Bay Company raised the English 
flag and the collector as promptly landed and 
raised the Stars and Stripes. There was a con- 
stant contention between the United States and 
State authorities, and the Hudson Bay people, 
in which the latter were worsted, until in 1856-7, 
after much correspondence, both governments 
appointed a commission to settle the difficulty. 
Then followed years of discussion which grew 
from time to time warlike, but there was no set- 
tlement of the points in dispute. 

In December, i860, the British Government, 
tired of the contest, proposed arbitration by one 
of the European powers and named either the 
Swiss Republic, Denmark or Belgium. Then 
followed the war of the Rebellion and America 
had no time to reach the case until 1868-9, when 
the whole matter was referred to two commis- 
sioners from each government and the boundary 
to be determined by the President of the Gen- 
eral Council of the Swiss Republic. 

This proposition was defeated and afterward 
in 1871 the whole matter was left to the decision 
of the Emperor of Germany. He made the 
award to the United States on all points of dispute 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. S7 

in October, 1872, and thus ended the long 
contest over the boundary line between the two 
countries, after more than half a century's 
bickering. 



CHAPTER II. 



ENGLISH AND AMERICAN OPINION OF THE VALUE OF 

THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY THE NEGLECT 

OF AMERICAN STATESMEN. 



The history briefly recited in the previous 
chapter, fully reveals the status of the United 
States as to ownership of Oregon. Prior to the 
date to which our story more specifically relates, 
the United States had gone on perfectingher titles 
by the various means already described. For the 
Nation's interest, it was a great good fortune at 
this early period that a broad-minded, far-seeing 
man like Thomas Jefferson was President. It 
was his wisdom and discretion and statesman- 
ship that enabled the country to overcome all 
difficulties and to make the Louisiana purchase. 

Looking deeper into the years of the future 
than his contemporaries, he organized the expe- 
dition of Lewis and Clarke and surveyed the Co- 
lumbia River from its source to its mouth. It was 
regarded by many at the time as a needless and 
unjustifiable expense; and their report did not 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 39 

create a ripple of applause, and it was an even 
nine years after the completion of the expedi- 
tion, and after the death of one of the explorers, 
before the report was printed and given to the 
public. 

But no reader of history will fail to see how 
important the expedition was as a link in our 
chain of evidence. The great misfortune of that 
time was, that there were not more Jeffersons. 
True, it did not people Oregon, nor was it fol- 
lowed by any legislation protecting any interest 
the United States held in the great territory. 

There were Congressmen and Senators, who, 
from time to time, made efforts to second the 
work of Jefferson. Floyd, of Virginia, as early 
as 1820, made an eloquent plea for the occupa- 
tion of the territory and a formal recognition of 
our rights as rulers. In 1824 a bill passed the 
lower house of Congress embodying the idea of 
Floyd stated four years previously, but upon 
reaching the Senate it fell on dull ears. When the 
question was before the Senate in 1828, renewing 
the treaty of 1818 with England, Floyd again 
attempted to have a bill passed to give land to 
actual settlers who would emigrate to Oregon, 
and as usual, failed. 

In February, 1838, Senator Linn, of Missouri, 
always the friend of Oregon, introduced a bill 
with the main features of the House bill which 
passed that body in 1824, but again failed in the 



40 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

Senate. The Government, however, was moved 
to send a special commissioner to Oregon to dis- 
cover its real conditions and report. But noth- 
ing practical resulted. 

It is not a pleasant thing to turn the pages of 
history made by American statesmen during the 
first third of the century, and even nearly to the 
end of its first half. There is a lack of wisdom 
and foresight and broad-mindedness, which 
shatters our ideals of the mental grandeur of 
the builders of the Republic. 

Diplomatically they had laid strong claim to 
the now known grand country beyond " the Stony 
Mountains." They had never lost an opportun- 
ity by treaty to hold their interests; and yet from 
year to year and from decade to decade, they 
had seen a foreign power, led by a great corpora- 
tion, ruling all the territory with a mailed hand. 
While they made but feeble protest in the way 
we have mentioned, they did even worse, they 
turned their shafts of oratory and wit and de- 
nunciation loose against the country itself and 
all its interests. 

Turn for a brief review of the political record 
of that period. Among the ablest men of that 
day was Senator Benton. He, in his speech of 
1825, said, that "The ridge of the Rocky Moun- 
tains may be named as a convenient, natural 
and everlasting boundary. Along this ridge the 
western limits of the Republic should be drawn, 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 41 

and the statue of the fabled God Terminus 
should be erected on its highest peak, never to 
be thrown down." In quoting Senator Benton 
of 1825, it is always but fair to say he had long 
before the day of Whitman's arrival in Washing- 
ton, greatly modified his views. 

But Senators equally intelligent and influen- 
tial — such as Winthrop, of Massachusetts, as late 
as 1844, quoted this sentence from Benton and 
commended its wisdom and statesmanship. It 
was in this discussion and while the treaty 
adopted in 1846 was being considered, that Gen- 
eral Jackson is on record as saying, that, " Our 
safety lay in a compact government." 

One of the remarkable speeches in the 
discussion of the Ashburton-Webster Treaty was 
that made by Senator McDuffie. Nothing could 
better show the educating power of the Hudson 
Bay Company in the United States, and the ig- 
norance of our statesmen, as to the extent and 
value of the territory. 

McDuffie said: " What is the character of this 
country?" (referring to Oregon) " As I under- 
stand it there are seven hundred miles this side 
of the Rocky Mountains that is unhabitable; 
where rain never falls; mountains wholly impass- 
able, except through gaps and depressions, to be 
reached only by going hundreds of miles out of 
the direct course. Well, now, what are you 
going to do in such a case? How are you going 




MAP SHOWING OREGON IN 1842, WHITMAN'S RIDE, THE RETURN TRIP TO OREGON, THE SPANISH POSSESSIONS AND THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 



42 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

to apply steam? Have you made an estimate of 
the cost of a railroad to the mouth of the Colum- 
bia? Why the wealth of the Indies would be in- 
sufficient. Of what use would it be for agricul- 
tural purposes? I would not, for that purpose, 
give a pinch of snuff for the whole territory. I 
wish the Rocky Mountains were an impassable 
barrier. If there was an embankment of even 
five feet to be removed I would not consent to 
expend five dollars to remove it and enable our 
population to go there. I thank God for his 
mercy in placing the Rocky Mountains there." 

Will the reader please take notice that the 
speech was delivered on the 25th day of Janu- 
ary, 1843, J ust about the time that Whitman, in 
the ever memorable ride, was flounderingthrough 
the snow drifts of the Wasatch and Uintah 
mountains, deserted by his guide and surrounded 
by discouragements that would have appalled 
any man not inspired by heroic purpose. 

It was at this same session of 1843, prior to 
the visit of Whitman, that Linn of Missouri, had 
offered a bill which made specific legal provis- 
ions for Oregon and he succeeded in passing the 
bill, which went to the House and as usual was 
defeated. The prevailing idea was that which 
was expressed by General Jackson to President 
Monroe, and before referred to, in which Jack- 
son says, "It should be our policy to concentrate 
our population and confine our frontier to proper 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 43 

limits until our country, in those limits, is filled 
with a dense population. It is the denseness of 
our population that gives strength and security 
to our frontier." That, "interminable desert," 
those "arid plains," those "impassable mountains," 
and "the impossibility of a wagon road from the 
United States," were the burdens of many 
speeches from the statesmen of that time. And 
then they emphasized the whole with the clincher 
that, after overcoming these terrible obstacles 
that intervened, we reached a land that was 
"worthless" not even worth "a pinch of snuff." 

Senator Dayton of New Jersey, in 1844, in the 
discussion of the Oregon boundary question said: 
" With the exception of land along the Willa- 
mette and strips along other water courses, the 
whole country is as irreclaimable and barren a 
waste as the Desert of Sahara. Nor is this the 
worst; the climate is so unfriendly to human life 
that the native population has dwindled away 
under the ravages of malaria." 

The National Intelligencer, about the same 
date, republished from the Louisville Journal 
and sanctioned the sentiments, as follows: 

" Of all the countries upon the face of the earth 
Oregon is one of the least favored by heaven. 
It is the mere riddlings of creation. It is almost 
as barren as Sahara and quite as unhealthy as 
. the Campagna of Italy. Russia has her Siberia 
and England has her Botany Bay and if the 



44 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

United States should ever need a country to 
which to banish her rogues and scoundrels, 
the utility of such a region as Oregon would be 
demonstrated. Until then, we are perfectly 
willing to leave this magnificent country to the 
Indians, trappers and buffalo hunters that roam 
over its sand banks." 

In furtherance of the Jackson sentiment of 
" a dense population," Senator Dayton said: " I 
have no faith in the unlimited extensions of this 
government. We have already conflicting inter- 
ests, more than enough, and God forbid that the 
time should ever come when a state on the shores 
of the Pacific, with its interests and tendencies 
of trade all looking toward Asiatic nations of the 
east, shall add its jarring claims to our already 
distracted and over-burdened confederacy. We 
are nearer to the remote nations of Europe than 
to Oregon." 

The Hudson Bay Company had done its edu- 
cating work well. If they had graduated Amer- 
ican Statesmen in a full course of Hudson Bay 
training and argument and literature, they could 
not have made them more efficient. Our states- 
men did not doubt that the honest title of the 
property was vested in the United States ; for 
they had gone on from time to time in perfect- 
ing this title ; yet they had no idea of its value 
and seemed to hold it only for diplomatic pur- 
poses or for prospective barter. 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 45 

The United States had no contestant for the 
property except England, but in 1818 she was 
not ready to make any assertion of her rights. 
In 1828 she still postponed making any demand 
and renewed the treaty, well knowing that the 
little island many thousands of miles across the 
Atlantic, was the supreme ruler of all the vast 
territory. 

Again, when the Ashburton treaty was at 
issue, and the question of boundary which had 
been for forty-eight years a bone of contention, 
the government again ignored Oregon, and was 
satisfied with settling the boundaries between a 
few farms up in Maine. 

But it requires no argument in view of this 
long continued series of acts, to reach the con- 
clusion that American interests in Oregon were 
endangered most of all from the apathy and 
ignorance of our own statesmen. 

That loyal old pioneer, Rev. Jason Lee, the 
chief of the Methodist Mission in Oregon, visited 
Washington in 1838 and presented the conditions 
of the country and its dangers forcibly. With 
funds contributed by generous friends he suc- 
ceeded in taking back with him quite a delega- 
tion of actual settlers for Oregon. But neither 
Congress nor the people were aroused. 

For all practical purposes Oregon was treated 
as a "foreign land." There was not even a showof 
a protectorate over the few American immigrants 



46 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

who had gathered there. The "American 
Board," which sent missionaries only to foreign 
lands, had charge of the mission fields, and care- 
fully secured passports for their missionaries 
before starting them upon their long journey. 
The Rev. Myron Eells in his interesting volume 
entitled "Father Eells," gives a copy of the pass- 
port issued to his father. It records — 

"The Rev. Cushing Eells, Missionary and 
Teacher of the American Board of Commission- 
ers for Foreign Missions to the tribes west of the 
Rocky Mountains, having signified to this depart- 
ment his desire to pass through the Indian Coun- 
try to the Columbia River, and requested the 
permission required by law to enable him so to 
do. Such permission is hereby granted ; and he 
is commended to the friendly attention of civil 
and military agents and officers and of citizens, 
if at any time it shall be necessary to his pro- 
tection. Given under my hand and the seal of 
the War Department this 27th day of February, 
183S. J. R. Poinsett, 

Secretary of War. 

It is a truth so plain as to need no argument, 
that during all these earlier years the whole 
effort of the fur traders had been to deceive all 
nationalities as to the value of the Northwestern 
country. In their selfishness they had deceived 
England as well as America. Their idea and 
hope was to keep out emigration. But England 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 47 

had been better informed than the United States, 
for the reason that all the commerce was wholly 
with England, and English capitalists who had 
large interests in the Hudson Bay Company, very 
naturally were better informed, but even they 
were not anxious for English colonization and 
an interference with their bonanza. 

They controlled the English press, ana so 
late as 1840 we read in the "British and Foreign 
Review," that " upon the whole, therefore, the 
Oregon country holds out no great promise as an 
agricultural field." 

The London Examiner in 1843 wonders that 
" Ignorant Americans " were " disposed to quarrel 
over a country, the whole in dispute not being 
worth to either party twenty thousand pounds." 

The Edinburgh Review, generally fair, said: 
"Only a very small portion of the land is capable 
of cultivation. It is a case in which the Ameri- 
can people have been misled as to climate and 
soil. In a few years all that gives life to the 
country, both the hunter and his prey will be 
extinct, and their places will be supplied by a 
thin white and half-breed population scattered 
along the fertile valleys supported by pastures 
instead of the chase, and gradually degenerating 
into barbarism, far more offensive than back- 
woodsmen." Our English friends, it may be 
observed, had long had a poor opinion of " back- 
woodsmen." 



48 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

The Edinburgh Review, in 1843, says: "How- 
ever the political question between England and 
the United States, as to their claims on Oregon 
shall be determined, Oregon will never be colon- 
ized overland from the United States. The 
world must assume a new phase before the 
American wagons make a plain road to the 
Columbia River." 

In this educating work of the English press, 
we can easily understand how public opinion was 
molded, and how our statesmen were misinformed 
and misdirected. It was, no doubt, largely due to 
the shrewd work of the great monopoly in Ore- 
gon backed up by English Government. Its first 
object was to keep it unsettled as long as possible, 
for on that depended the millions for the Hudson 
Bay Co.'s treasury, but beyond that, the govern- 
ment plainly depended upon the powerful organ- 
ization to hold all the land as a British posses- 
sion. 

In the war of 181 2, one of the first moves was 
to dispatch a fleet to the Columbia, with orders, 
as the record shows, "to take and destroy every- 
thing American on the northwest road." 

The prosperous people of Oregon, Washing- 
ton and Idaho are in a position now to enjoy 
such prophetic fulminations, but they can easily 
see the dangers that were escaped. It was a 
double danger, danger from abroad and at home, 
and of the later most of all. The Nation had 
been deceived. It must be undeceived. 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 49 

The outlook was not hopeful. The year 
1843 had been ushered in. The long looked-for 
and talked-of treaty had been signed, and Ore- 
gon again ignored. There wasscacely a shadow 
cast of coming events to give hope to the friends 
of far-away Oregon. 

Suppose some watchman from the aome of 
the Capitol casting his eyes westward in 1843, 
could have seen that little caravan winding 
through valleys and over the hills and hurrying 
eastward, but who would dream that its leader 
was "a man of destiny," bearing messages to a 
nation soon to be aroused? of how little or how 
much importance was this messenger or his mes- 
sage, turn to "The Ride to Save Oregon" and 
judge. But certain it is, a great change, border- 
ing on revolution, was portending. 



CHAPTER III 



THE ROMANCE OF THE OREGON MISSION. 



These pages are mainly designed to show in 
brief the historical and political environments of 
Oregon in pioneer days, and the patriotic ser- 
vices rendered the nation by Dr. Marcus Whit- 
man. But to attempt to picture this life and 
omit the missionary, would be like reciting the 
play of Hamlet and omitting Hamlet. 

The mission work to the Oregon Indians be- 
gan in a romance and ended in a great tragedy. 
The city of St. Louis in that day was so near the 
border of civilization that it was accustomed to 
see much of the rugged and wild life of the 
plains; yet in 1832 the people beheld even to 
them the odd sight of four Flat-head Indians in 
Indian dress and equipment parading their prin- 
cipal streets. 

General Clarke, who commanded the military 
post of that city was promptly notified and took 
the strangers in charge. He had been an Indian 

50 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 51 

commissioner for many years in the far West, 
knew of the tribe well and could easily commu- 
nicate with them. With it all he was a good 
friend to the Indians and at once made arrange- 
ments at the fort to make them comfortable. 
They informed him that they were all chiefs of 
the tribe and had spent the entire Summer and 
Fall upon their long journey. Their wearied 
manner and wasted appearance told the fact 
impressively, even had the general not known 
the locality where they belonged. 

For a while they were reticent regarding 
their mission, as is usual with Indians; but in 
due time their story was fully revealed. They 
had heard of "The White Man's Book of Life," 
and had come "to hunt for it" and "to ask for 
teachers to be sent" to their tribe. 

To Gen. Clarke this was a novel proposition 
to come in that way from wild Indians. General 
Clarke was a devoted Catholic and treated his 
guests as a humane and hospitable man. After 
they were rested up he piloted them to every 
place which he thought would entertain and in- 
terest them. Frequent visits were made to 
Catholic Churches, and to theatres and shows 
of every kind. And so they spent the balance 
of the Winter. 

During this time, two of the Indians, from 
the long journey and possibly from over-eating 
rich food, to which they were unaccustomed, 



52 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

were taken sick and died, and were given hon- 
ored burial by the soldiers. When the early 
Spring sun began to shine, the two remaining In- 
dians commenced their preparations for return 
home. 

General Clarke proposed to give them a ban- 
quet upon the last evening of their sojourn, and 
start them upon their way loaded with all the 
comforts he could give. At this banquet one of 
the Indians made a speech. It was that speech, 
brimming over with Indian eloquence, which 
fired the Christian hearts of the Nation into a 
new life. The speech was translated into Eng- 
lish and thus doubtless loses much of its charm. 

The chief said, "I come to you over the trail 
of many moons from the setting sun. You were 
the friends of my fathers, who have all gone the 
long way. I came with an eye partly open for 
my people, who sit in darkness. I go back with 
both eyes closed. How can I go back blind, to 
my blind people? I made my way to you with 
strong arms through many enemies and strange 
lands that I might carry back much to them. I 
go back with both arms broken and empty. 
Two fathers came with us, they were^the braves 
of many winters and wars. We leave them 
asleep here by your great water and wigwams. 
They were tired in many moons and their moc- 
casins wore out. 

" My people sent me to get the White Man's 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 53 

Book ot Heaven. You took me to where you 
allow your women to dance as we do not 
ours, and the book was not there. You took 
me to where they worship the great Spirit with 
candles and the book was not there. You 
showed me images of the good spirits and the 
pictures of the good land beyond, but the book 
was not among them to tell us the way. I am 
going back the long and sad trail to my people 
in the dark land. You make my feet heavy with 
gifts and my moccasins will grow old in carrying 
them, yet the book is not among them. When 
I tell my poor blind people after one more snow, 
in the big council, that I did not bring the book; 
no word will be spoken by our old men or by 
our young braves. One by one they will rise up 
and go out in silence. My people will die in 
darkness, and they will go on a long path to 
other hunting grounds. No white man will go 
with them, and no White Man's Book to make 
the way plain. I have no more words." 

When this speech was translated and sent 
East it was published in the Christian Advocate 
in March, 1833, with a ringing editorial from 
President Fisk of Wilbraham College. " Who 
will respond to go beyond the Rocky Mountains 
and carry the Book of Heaven" ? It made a 
profound impression. It was a Macedonian cry 
of " Come over and help us," not to be resisted. 
Old men and women who read this call, and 



54 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

attended the meetings at that time, are still liv- 
ing, and can attest to its power. It stirred the 
church as it has seldom been stirred into activity. 

This incident of the appearance in St Louis 
and demand of the four Flathead Indians has 
been so fully verified in history as to need no 
additional proof to silence modern sceptics 
who have ridiculed it. All the earlier histories 
such as "Gray's History of Oregon," ''Reed's 
Mission of the Methodist Church," Governor 
Simpson's narrative, Barrow's "Oregon," Park- 
man's "Oregon Trail," with the correspondence 
of the Lees, verified the truth of the occurrence. 

Bancroft, in his thirty-eight volume history, 
in volume i, page 579, says, "Hearing of the 
Christians and how heaven favors them, four 
Flathead Indian Chiefs, in 1832, went to St. 
Louis and asked for teachers," etc. As this lat- 
ter testimony is from a source which discredited 
Missionary work, as we shall show in another 
chapter, it is good testimony upon the point. 
Some modern doubters have also ridiculed the 
speech reported to have been made by the Indian 
chief. Those who know Indians best will bear 
testimony to its genuineness. 

Almost every tribe of Indians has its orator 
and story-teller, and some of them as famous in 
their way as the Beechers and Phillipses and 
Depews, among the whites, or the Douglasses 
and Langstons among the negroes. 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 55 

In 185 1 the writer of this book was purser 
upon the steamer Lot Whitcomb, which ran be- 
tween Milwaukee and Astoria, Oregon. One 
beautiful morning I wandered a mile or more 
down the beach and was seated upon the sand, 
watching the great combers as they rolled in 
from the Pacific, which, after a storm, is an es- 
pecially grand sight; when suddenly, as if he had 
arisen from the ground, an Indian appeared 
near by and accosted me. He was a fine speci- 
men of a savage, clean and well dressed. He 
evidently knew who I was and my position on 
the steamer and had followed me to make his 
plea. With a toss of his arm and a motion of 
his body he threw the fold of his blanket across 
his left shoulder as gracefully as a Roman Sena- 
tor could have done, and began his speech. 
"Hy-in hyas kloshe Boston, Boston hy-in steam- 
boat hy-in cuitan. Indian halo steam-boat, halo 
cuitan." It was a rare mixture of English words 
with the Chinook, which I easily understood. 

The burthen of his speech was the greatness 
and richness and goodness of white men; (they 
called all white men Boston men) ; they owned 
all the steam-boats and horses; that the Indians 
were very poor; that his squaw and pappoose 
were away up the Willamette river, so far away 
that his moccasins would be worn out before he 
could reach their wigwam; that he had no money 
and wanted to ride. 



56 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

I have heard the great orators of the na- 
tion in the pulpit and halls of legislation, but I 
never listened to a more eloquent plea, or saw 
gestures more graceful than were those of that 
wild Wasco Indian, of which I alone was the 
audience. 

Another interesting historical scrap of the 
romantic history of these Flathead chiefs is fur- 
nished in the fact that the celebrated Indian 
artist, George Catlin, was on one of his tours in 
the west taking sketches in the spring of 1833. 
Soon after their leaving St. Louis he dropped in 
with the two Indians on their return journey 
and travelled with them for some days, taking 
pictures of both, and they are now numbers 207 
and 208 in his great collection. 

Upon his return east he read the Indian 
speech, and of the excitement it had caused, 
and not having been told by the Indians of the 
cause of their journey, and wishing to be assured 
that he had accidentally struck a great historic 
prize in securing the pictures, he sat down and 
wrote General Clarke at St. Louis, asking him 
if the speech was true and the story correct. 
General Clarke promptly replied "The story is 
true; that was the only object of their visit." 
Taken in connection with the after history, no 
two pictures in any collection have a deeper 
or grander significance. 

We may add here that within a month after 




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HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGO... 57 

leaving St. Louis, one of the Indians was taken 
sick and died, and but one reached his home in 
safety. 

When I reached Oregon in 1850, the first 
tribe of Indians I visited in their home was the 
Flatheads. But whether the story is true in all 
its minutiae or not, it matters but little. It was 
believed true, and produced grand results. It 
can hardly be said, from the standpoint of the 
Christian missionary, that the work in Oregon 
was a grand success. And yet, never were mis- 
sionaries more heroic, or that labored in any 
field with greater fidelity for the true interests 
of the Indian savages to whom they were sent. 

They were great, warm-hearted, intelligent, 
educated, earnest men and women, who endured 
privation, isolation and discomfort with cheer- 
fulness, that they might teach Christianity and 
save souls. There was no failure from any in- 
competency of the teachers, but from complica- 
tions and surroundings hopelessly beyond their 
power to change. 

They brought with them over their long, 
weary journey the Bible, Christianity and civil- 
ization, and the school. They were met at first 
with a cordial reception by the Indians, but a 
great corporation, dependent upon the steel trap 
and continuous savage life, soon showed its hand. 
It was a foreign un-American opposition. It 
had met every American company that had at- 



58 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

tempted to share in the business promoted by 
savage life, and routed them. The missionaries 
were wide awake men and were quick to see the 
drift of affairs. 

Dr. Whitman early foresaw what was to hap- 
pen. He saw the possibilities of the country and 
that the first battle was between the school- 
house and civilization, and the tepee and sa- 
vagery. He resolved to do everything possible 
for the Indian before it began. In a letter to his 
father-in-law, dated May 16, 1844, from Waiilat- 
pui, he says: 

"It does not concern me so much what is to 
become of any particular set of Indians, as to 
give them the offer of salvation through the 
Gospel, and the opportunity of civilization, and 
then I am content to do good to all men as I 
have opportunity. I have no doubt our greatest 
work is to be to aid the white settlement of this 
country and help to found its religious institu- 
tions. Providence has its full share in all those 
events. Although the Indians have made, and are 
making rapid advance in religious knowledge 
and civilization, yet it cannot be hoped that time 
will be allowed to mature the work of Christiani- 
zation or civilization before white settlers will de- 
mand the soil and the removal both of the In- 
dians and the Missions." 

" What Americans desire of this kind they 
always effect, and it is useless to oppose or desire 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 59 

it otherwise. To guide as far as can be done, 
and direct these tendencies for the best, is evi- 
dently the part of wisdom. Indeed I am fully 
convinced that when people refuse or neglect to 
fill the design of Providence, they ought not 
to complain at the results, and so it is equally 
useless for Christians to be over-anxious on 
their account." 

"The Indians have in no case obeyed the com- 
mand to multiply and replenish the earth, and 
they can not stand in the way of others doing so. 
A place will be left them to do this as fully as 
their ability to obey will permit, and the more we 
do for them the more fully will this be realized. 
No exclusiveness can be asked for any portion 
of the human family. The exercise of his rights 
are all that can be desired. In order for this to 
be understood to its proper extent, in regard 
to the Indians, it is necessary that they seek to 
preserve their rights by peaceable means only. 
Any violation of this rule will be visited with only 
evil results to themselves." 

This letter from Dr. Whitman to nis wife's 
father, dated about seven months after his re- 
turn from his memorable " Ride to Save Ore- 
gon," is for the first time made public in the 
published transactions of the State Historical 
Society of Oregon in 1893. It is important from 
the fact that it gives a complete key to the life 
and acts of this silent man and his motives for 



60 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

the part he took in the great historic drama, in 
which the statesmen of the two nations were to 
be the actors, with millions of people the inter- 
ested audience. 

In another place we will show how Whitman 
has been misrepresented by modern historians, 
and an attempt made to deprive him of all 
honor, and call attention to the above record, all 
the more valuable because never intended for 
the public eye when written. 

In the same letter Whitman says, " As I hold 
the settlement of this country by Americans, 
rather than by English colonists, most important, 
I am happy to have been the means of landing 
so large an immigration on the shores of the 
Columbia with their wagons, families and stock, 
all in safety." 

Such sentiments reveal only the broad- 
minded, far-seeing Christian man, who, though 
many thousand miles away from its protecting 
influence, still loved "The banner of beauty and 
glory." He had gone to Oregon with only a de- 
sire to teach savages Christianity; but saw in the 
near future the inevitable, and without lessening 
his interest in his savage pupils, he entered the 
broader field. 

Who can doubt that both were calls from a 
power higher than man? Or who can point to 
an instance upon historic pages where the great 
work assigned was prosecuted- with greater 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 61 

fidelity? Having accomplished a feat unpar- 
alleled for its heroism and without a break in 
its grand success, he makes no report of it to 
any state or national organization, but while he 
talked freely with his friends of his work it is 
only now, after he has rested in his martyr's 
grave for forty-seven and more years, that this 
modest letter written to his wife's father at the 
time, strongly reveals his motives. 

Having accomplished his great undertaking, 
he was still the missionary and friend of the 
Indians, and at once dropped back to his work, 
and the drudgery of his Indian mission. 

Again we find him enlarging his field of 
work, teaching his savage friends not only 
Christianity, but how to sow, and plant, and reap, 
and build houses, and prepare for civilization. 
He took no part in the new political life which 
he had made possible. He was a stranger to all 
things except those which concerned the work 
he was called to do. In his letter he speaks of 
earnestly desiring to return East and bring out 
the second company of immigrants the coming 
Spring, but the needs of his mission, his wasted 
fields, and his mill burned during his absence, 
seemed to demand his presence at home. 

The world speaks of this event and that, as 
" It so happened." They will refer to the advent 
of the Flathead Indians in St. Louis in 1832, as 
"It so happened." The more thoughtful read- 



62 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

ers of history find fewer things "accidental." 
In this great historic romance the Flathead In- 
dians were not an accident. The American 
Board, the Methodist Board, Dr. Whitman and 
Jason Lee, and their co-workers, were not acci> 
dents. They were all men inspired to a specific 
work, and having entered upon it, the field 
widened into dimensions of unforeseen grandeur, 
whose benefits the Nation has never yet befit- 
tingly acknowledged. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE WEDDING JOURNEY ACROSS THE PLAINS. 



The Romance of the Oregon Mission did not 
end with the call of the Flathead Indians. This 
was savage romance, that of civilization fol- 
lowed. 

The Methodists sent the Lees in 1834, and 
the American Board tried to get the right men 
for the work to accompany them, but failed. 
But in 1S35 they sent Dr. Marcus Whitman and 
the Rev. Samuel Parker to Oregon upon a trip 
of discovery, to find out the real conditions, 
present and prospective. 

They got an early start in 1835 and reached 
Green River, where they met large bodies of 
Indians and Indian traders, and were made fully 
acquainted with the situation. The Indians gave 
large promises, and the field seemed wide and 
inviting. Upon consultation it was agreed that 
Dr. Whitman should return to the States and 
report to the American Board, while Dr. Parker 
should go on to the Columbia. Two Indian 

63 



64 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

boys from the Pacific Coast, Richard and John, 
volunteered to return with Dr. Whitman and 
come back with him the following year. 

The Doctor and his Indian boys reached his 
home in Rushville, New York, late on Saturday 
night in November, and not making known the 
event to his family, astonished the congregation 
in his church by walking up the aisle with his 
Indians, and calling out an audible exclamation 
from his good old mother, " Well, there is Mar- 
cus Whitman." 

Upon the report of Dr. Whitman the Ameri- 
can Board resolved to at once .occupy the field. 
Dr. Whitman had long been engaged to be mar- 
ried to Miss Narcissa Prentice, the daughter of 
Judge Prentice of Prattsburg, New York, who 
was as much of an enthusiast in the Oregon In- 
dian Mission work as the Doctor himself. The 
American Board thought it unwise to send the 
young couple alone on so distant a journey, and 
at once began the search for company. The 
wedding day, which had been fixed was post- 
poned, and valuable time was passing, and no 
suitable parties would volunteer for the work, 
when its trials and dangers were explained. 

The Board had received word that the Rev. 
H. H. Spalding, who had recently married, 
was then with his wife on his way to the Osage 
Mission to enter upon a new field of work. It 
was in January and Whitman took to the road 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 65 

in his sleigh in pursuit of the traveling Mission- 
aries. He overtook them near the village of 
Hudson and hailed them in his cheery way: 

"Ship ahoy, you are wanted for the Oregon 
Mission." 

After a short colloquy they drove on to the 
hotel of the little village. There the subject was 
canvassed and none of its dangers hidden. Mr. 
Spalding promptly made up his mind and said: 

" My dear, I do not think it your duty to go, 
but we will leave it to you after we have 
prayed." 

Mrs. Spalding asKed to be left alone, and in 
ten minutes she appeared with a beaming face 
and said, "I have made up my mind to go." 

"But your health, my dear?" 

"I like the command just as it stands," says 
Mrs. Spalding, " Go ye into all the world and 
preach the Gospel, with no exceptions for poor 
health." 

Others referred to the hardships and dangers 
and terrors of the' journey, but Dr. Spalding 
says " They all did not move her an iota." 

Such was the party for the wedding journey. 
It did look like a dangerous journey for a woman 
who had been many months an invalid, but 
events proved Mrs. Spalding a real heroine, 
with a courage and pluck scarcely equalled, and 
under the circumstances never excelled. Having 
turned her face toward Oregon she never looked 

5 



66 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

back and never was heard to murmur or regret 
her decision. 

This difficulty being removed, the day was 
again set for the marriage of Dr. Whitman and 
Miss Prentice which took place in February, 
1836. All authorities mark Narcissa Prentice as 
a woman of great force of character. 

She was the adored daughter of a refined 
Christian home and had the love of a wide circle 
of friends. She was the soprano singer in the 
choir of the village church of which she and her 
family were members. 

In the volume of the magazine of American 
History for 1884, the editor, the late Miss Martha 
J. Lamb, says: 

"The voice of Miss Prentice was of remark- 
able sweetness. She was a graceful blonde, 
stately and dignified in her bearing, without a 
particle of affectation." Says Miss Lamb: 
"When preparing to leave for Oregon the church 
held a farewell service and the minister gave out 
the well-known hymn: 

" Yes, my native land I love thee, 

All thy scenes I love them well; 
Friends, connection, happy country, 
Can I bid you all farewell." 

The whole congregation joined heartily in the 
singing, but before the hymn was half through, 
one by one they ceased singing and audible sobs 
were heard in every part of the great audience. 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 67 

The last stanza was sung by the sweet voice of 
Mrs. Whitman alone, clear, musical and unwav- 
ering." 

One of the pleasant things since it was 
announced that these sketches would be written, 
is the number of people, that before were 
unknown, who have volunteered charming per- 
sonal sketches of Dr. and Mrs. Whitman. 

A venerable friend who often, he fears, 
attended church more for the songs of Miss 
Prentice than for the sermons, was also at their 
wedding. The venerable J. S. Seeley, of Aurora, 
Illinois, writes: "It was just fifty-nine years ago 
this March since I drove Dr. and Mrs. Whitman 
from Elmira, N. Y., to Hollidaysburg, Pa., in my 
sleigh. This place was at the foot of the Alle- 
gheny mountains (east side) on the Pennsylva- 
nia Canal. The canal boats were built in two 
sections and were taken over the mountains on 
a railroad." 

"They expected to find the canal open on the 
west side and thus reach the Ohio river on the 
way to Oregon. I was with them some seven 
days. Dr. Whitman impressed me as a man of 
strong sterling character and lots of push, but 
he was not a great talker. Mrs. Whitman was 
of medium size and impressed me as a woman 
of great resolution." 

A younger sister of the bride, Mrs. H. P. Jack- 
son, of Oberlin, Ohio, writes: "Mrs. Whitman was 



68 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

the mentor of her younger sisters in the home. 
She joined the church when eleven years old, 
and from her early years expressed a desire to 
be a missionary. The wedding occurred in the 
church at Angelica, N. Y., to which place my 
father had removed, and the ceremony was per- 
formed by the Rev. Everett Hull. I recollect 
how deeply interested the two Indian boys were 
in the ceremony, and how their faces brightened 
when the Doctor told them that Mrs. Whitman 
would go back with them to Oregon. We all 
had the greatest faith and trust in Dr. Whitman, 
and in all our letters from our dear sister there 
was never a word of regret or repining at the 
life she had chosen." 

The two Indian boys were placed in school 
and learned to read and speak English during 
the Winter. 

The journey down the Ohio and up the Mis- 
sissippi and Missouri Rivers was tedious, but un- 
eventful. 

Those who navigated the Missouri River fifty 
years ago, have not forgotten its snags and sand 
bars, which caused a constant chattering of the 
bells in the engineer's room from morning un- 
til evening, and all through the night, unless the 
prudent captain tied up to the shore. The man 
and his "lead line" was constantly on the prow 
singing out "twelve feet," "quarter past twain," 
then suddenly "six feet," when the bells would 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 69 

ring out as the boat's nose would bury in the 
concealed sandbar. 

But the party safely reached its destination, 
and was landed with all its effects, wagons, 
stock and outfit. 

The company was made up of Dr. and Mrs. 
Whitman, Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Spalding, H. H. 
Gray, two teamsters and the two Indian boys. 

The American Fur Company, which was send- 
ing out a convoy to their port in Oregon, had 
promised to start from Council Bluffs upon a 
given date, and make them welcome members 
of the company. It was a large company made 
up of two hundred men and six hundred ani- 
mals. On the journey in from Oregon, in 1835, 
cholera had attacked the company, and Dr. 
Whitman had rendered such faithful and effi- 
cient service that they felt under obligations to 
him. But they had heard there were to be women 
along and the old mountaineers did not want to 
be bothered with women upon such a journey, 
and they moved out promptly without waiting 
for the Doctor's party, which had been delayed. 
When Dr. Whitman reached Council Bluffs 
and found them gone, he was greatly disturbed. 
There was nothing to do but make forced 
marches and catch the train before it reached 
the more dangerous Indian country. Dr. Spald- 
ingwould have liked to have found it an excuse to 
return home, but Mrs. Spalding remarked, "I 



70 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

have started to the Rocky Mountains and I ex- 
pect to go there." 

Spalding in a dressing gown in his study, or 
in a city pulpit, would have been in his element, 
but he was not especially marked for an Indian 
missionary. Early in the campaign a Missouri 
cow kicked him off the ferry boat into the river. 
The ague racked every bone in his body, and a 
Kansas tornado at one time lifted both his tent 
and his blanket and left him helpless. He 
seemed to catch every disaster that came along. 
A man may have excellent points in his make- 
up, as Dr. Spalding had, and yet not be a good 
pioneer. 

He and his noble wife made a grand success, 
however, when they got into their field of work. 
It was Mrs. Spalding who first translated Bible 
truths and Christian songs into the Indian dia- 
lect. 

It seemed a discouraging start for the little 
company when compelled to pull out upon the 
boundless plains alone. But led by Whitman, 
they persevered and caught the convoy late in 
May. 

The Doctor's boys now proved of good ser- 
vice. They were patient and untiring and at 
home on the trail. They took charge of all 
the loose stock. The cows they were taking 
along would be of great value upon reaching 
their destination, and they proved to be of value 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 71 

along the journey as well, as milk suppliers for 
the little party. 

The first part of the journey Mrs. Whitman 
rode mainly in the wagon with Mrs. Spalding, 
who was not strong enough for horseback rid- 
ing. But soon she took to her pony and liked 
it so much better, that she rode nearly all the 
way on horseback. They were soon initiated 
into the trials and dangers of the journey. 

On May 9th Mrs. Whitman writes in her 
diary: 

"We had great difficulty to-day. Husband 
became so completely exhausted with swim- 
ming the river, that it was with difficulty he 
made the shore the last time. We had but one 
canoe, made of skins, and that was partly eaten 
by the dogs the night before." 

She speaks of "meeting large bodies of Paw- 
nee Indians," and says: 

" They seemed very much surprised ana pleas- 
ed to see white women. They were noble looking 
Indians." 

"We attempted, by a hard march, to reach 
Loup Fork. The wagons got there at eleven at 
night, but husband and I rode with the Indian 
boys until nine o'clock, when Richard proposed 
that we go on and they would stay with the loose 
cattle upon the prairie, and drive them in early 
in the morning. We did not like to leave them 
and concluded to stay. Husband had a cup tied 



72 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

to his saddle, and in this he milked what we 
wanted to drink; this was our supper. Our sad- 
dle-blankets with our rubber-cloaks were our 
beds. Having offered thanksgiving for the bless- 
ings of the day, and seeking protection for the 
night, we committed ourselves to rest. We 
awoke refreshed and rode into camp before 
breakfast." 

Here they caught up with the Fur Company 
caravan, after nearly a month's traveling. These 
brave women, with their kindness and tact, soon 
won the good-will and friendship of the old 
plainsmen, and every vestige of opposition to 
having women in the train disappeared and every 
possible civility and courtesy was extended to 
them. One far-seeing old American trader, who 
had felt the iron-heel of the English Company 
beyond the Stony Mountains, pointing to the 
little missionary band, prophetically remarked, 
" There is something that the Honorable Hud- 
son Bay Company can not drive out of Oregon." 

In her diary of the journey, Mrs. Whitman 
never expresses a fear, and yet remembering my 
own sensations upon the same journey, I can 
scarcely conceive that two delicately nurtured 
woman would not be subjected to great anxi- 
eties. 

The Platte River, in that day, was but little 
understood and looked much worse than it really 
was. Where forded it was a mile wide, and not 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 73 

often more than breast-deep to the horses. Two 
men, on the best horses, rode fifty yards in ad- 
vance of the wagons, zig-zagging up and down, 
while the head-driver kept an eye open for the 
shallowest water and kept upon the bar. In 
doing this a train would sometimes have to travel 
nearly twice the distance of the width of the 
river to get across. The bed of the river is made 
of shifting sand, and a team is not allowed to stop 
for a moment, or it will steadily settle down and 
go out of sight. 

A balky team or a break in the harness re- 
quires prompt relief or all will be lost. But 
after all the Platte River is remembered by all 
old plainsmen with a blessing. For three hun- 
dred miles it administered to the comfort of the 
pioneers. 

It is even doubtful whether they could have 
gone the journey had it not been for the Platte, 
as it rolls its sands down into the Missouri. The 
water is turbid with sand at all times, as the 
winds in their wide sweep across sandy plains 
perpetually add to its supply. But the water 
when dipped up over night and the sand allowed 
to settle, is clear and pure and refreshing. 

The pioneers, however, took the Platte water 
as it ran, often remarking, "In this country a 
fellow needs sand and the Platte was built to 
furnish it." In June Mrs. Whitman writes: "We 
are now in the buffalo country and my husband 



74 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

and I relish it; he has a different way of cooking 
every part of the animal." 

Mrs. Whitman makes the following entry in 
her diary, for the benefit of her young sisters: 

" Now, H. and E., you must not think it very 
hard to have to get up so early after sleeping on 
the soft ground, when you find it hard work to 
open your eyes at seven o'clock. Just think of 
me every morning. At the word 'Arise!' we all 
spring. While the horses are feeding we get 
breakfast in a hurry and eat it. By that time 
the words 'Catch up, catch up,' ring throughout 
the camp for moving. We are ready to start 
usually at six, travel till eleven, encamp, rest and 
feed, and start again at two and travel till six 
and if we come to a good tavern, camp for the 
night." 

A certain number of men were set apart for 
hunters each day and they were expected to 
bring in four mule loads of meat to supply the 
daily demands. While in the buffala country 
this was an easy task; when it came to deer, an- 
telope and birds, it was much more difficult 
work. 

The antelope is a great delicacy, but he is 
the fleetest footed runner upon the plains and 
has to be captured, generally, by strategy. He 
has an inordinate curiosity. The hunter lies 
down and waves a red handkerchief on the end 
of his ram-rod and the whole herd seems to have 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON,, 75 

the greatest desire to know what it is. They 
gallop around, trot high and snort and keep 
coming nearer, until within gun shot they pay 
dearly for their curiosity. 

To avoid danger and failure of meat supplies 
before leaving the buffalo country, the company 
stopped and laid in a good supply of jerked 
buffalo meat. It was well they did, for it was 
about all they had for a long distance. As Mrs. 
Whitman says in her diary: 

"Dried buffalo meat and tea for breakfast, 
and tea and dried buffalo meat for supper," but 
jokingly adds, " The Doctor gives it variety by 
cooking every part of the animal in a different 
way." But after all it was a novel menu for a 
bridal trip. 

By a strange miscalculation they ran out of 
flour before the journey was half ended. But, 
says Mrs. Whitman, "My health continues 
good, but sister Spalding has been made sick 
by the diet." 

On July 22d, she writes: 

" Had a tedious ride until four p. m. I thought 
of my mother s bread as a child would, but did 
not find it. I should relish it extremely well. 
But we feel that the good Father has blessed us 
beyond our most sanguine expectations. It is 
good to feel that He is all I want and if I had 
ten thousand lives I would give them all to 
Him." 



76 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

The road discovered by the pioneers through 
the South Pass seems to have been made by 
nature on purpose to unite the Pacific with the 
Atlantic slope by an easy wagon road. The 
Wind River and Rocky Mountain's appear to 
have run out of material, or spread out to make 
it an easy climb. So gentle is the ascent the 
bulk of the way that the traveller is scarcely 
aware of the fact that he is climbing the great 
"Stony Mountains." 

Fremont discovered the pass in 1842 anu went 
through it again in 1843, and Stanbury in 1849, 
but it is well to remember that upon this notable 
bridal tour, these Christian ladies passed over 
the same route six years before "The Pathfinder," 
or the engineer corps of the United States, ever 
saw it. 

It is always an object of interest to know 
when the top has been reached and to see the 
famous spring from which the water divides and 
runs both ways. Our Missionary band, accus- 
tomed to have regular worship on the plains, 
when they reached the dividing of the waters 
held an especially interesting service. The Rev. 
Dr. Jonathan Edwards graphically describes it. 
He says: 

"There is a scene connected with their jour- 
ney which demands extraordinary attention in 
view of its great significance. It is one that 
arouses all that is good within us, and has been 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 77 

» 

pronounced as hardly paralleled in American 
records for historic grandeur and far-reaching 
consequence. It is sublimely beautiful and 
inspiring in its effects, and would baffle the 
genius of a true poet to describe it with adequate 
fitness. They were yet high on the Rocky 
Mountains, with the great expanse of the Pacific 
slope opening before them like a magnificent 
panorama. Their hearts were profoundly moved 
as they witnessed the landscape unfolding its 
delightful scenes, and as they viewed the vast 
empire given them to win for King Emanuel." 
"There we find the little group of five mission- 
aries, and the two Nez Perces boys that Whit- 
man took with him to New York selecting a spot 
where the bunch grass grows high and thick. 
Their hearts go out to God in joyful adoration 
for his protecting care over them thus far, espec- 
ially so, because they felt the greatest difficulties 
had been overcome and they now entered the 
country for the people of which they had devoted 
their lives. The sky is bright above them, the 
sun shines serenely and the atmosphere is light 
and invigorating. The sun continues his course 
and illuminates the western horizon like a flame 
of fire, as if striving to give them a temporary 
glimpse of the vast domain between them and 
the Pacific Ocean. They spread their blankets 
carefully on the grass, and lifted the American 
flag to wave gracefully in the breeze, and with 



78 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

the Bible in the centre, they knelt, and with 
prayer and praise on their lips, they take posses- 
sion of the western side of the American conti- 
nent in His name who proclaimed "Peace on 
earth and good will toward men." How strongly 
it evidences their faith in their mission and the 
conquering power of the King of Peace. What 
a soul-inspiring scene." 

Continuing her diary Mrs. Whitman says: 
"I have been in a peaceful state of mind all day." 

July 25th she writes: "The ride has been very 
mountainous, paths only winding along the sides 
of steep mountains, in many places so narrow 
that the animal would scarcely find room to 
place his foot." 

It is upon this date that she again mourns 
over the Doctor's persistence in hauling along 
his historic wagon. Even the good wife in full 
sympathy with her husband failed to see it as he 
did ; it was the pioneer chariot, loaded with a rich- 
ness that no wagon before or since contained. 

On July 25th: "■ Husband has had a tedious 
time with the wagon to-day. It got stuck in the 
creek, and on the mountain side, so steep that 
the horses could scarcely climb, it was upset 
twice. It was a wonder that it was not turning 
somersaults continually. It is not grateful to my 
feelings to see him wearing himself out with ex- 
cessive fatigue. All the most difficult portions 
of the way he has walked, in a laborious attempt 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 79 

to take the wagon." Those who have gone over 
the same road and remember the hard pulls at 
the end of long ropes, where there was plenty of 
help, will wonder most that he succeeded. 

The company arrived at Fort Hall on August 
ist. Here they succeeded in buying a little 
rice, which was regarded a valuable addition to 
their slender stock of eatables. They had gone 
beyond the buffalo range and had to live upon 
the dried meat, venison and wild ducks or fish, 
all of which were scarce and in limited supply. 

Speaking of crossing Snake River Mrs. 
Whitman says, "We put the packs on the tallest 
horses, the highest being selected for Mrs. 
Spalding and myself. 

" The river where we crossed is divided into 
three branches, by islands. The last blanch is 
half a mile wide and so deep as to come up to 
the horses' sides, and a very strong current. The 
wagon turned upside down in the current, and 
the mules were entangled in the harness. I once 
thought of the terrors of the rivers, but now I 
cross the most difficult streams without a fear." 

Among the novel ferries she speaks of was 
a dried elk skin with two ropes attached. The 
party to be ferried lies flat down on tne skin 
and two Indian women swimming, holding the 
ropes in their mouths pull it across the stream. 

One of the notable qualities of Dr. Whitman 
was his observance of the small things in every- 



80 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

day life. Many a man who reaches after grand 
results overlooks and neglects the little events. 
Mrs. Whitman says: 

" For weeks and weeks our camping places 
have been upon open plains with not a tree in 
sight, but even here we find rest and comfort. 
My husband, the best the world ever produced, 
is always ready to provide a comfortable shade 
from the noonday sun when we stop. With one 
of our saddle blankets stretched across the sage 
brush or upheld by sticks, our saddle blankets 
and fishamores placed on the ground, our rest- 
ing is delightful." 

Among the notable events of the journey was 
when the party reached Green River, the place 
of annual meeting of the Indians and the trad- 
ers. It was this place that Dr. Whitman had 
reached the year previous. The Green is one 
of the large branches of the Colorado, which 
heads among the snow banks of Fremont's Peak, 
a thousand miles away. In its picturesque rugged 
beauty few sections excel the scenery along the 
river, and now the whole scene, alive with fron- 
tier and savage life, was one to impress itself in- 
delibly upon the memories of our travelers. 

There were about two hundred traders and 
two thousand Indians, representatives of tribes 
located many hundreds of miles distant. The 
Cayuse and Nez Perces, who expected Dr. 
Whitman and his delegation, were present to 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 81 

honor the occasion, and meet the boys, John and 
Richard, who had accompanied the doctor from 
this place the year before. The Indians ex- 
pressed great delight over the successful jour- 
ney; but most of all they were delighted with 
the noble white squaws who had come over the 
long trail. They were demonstrative and 
scoured the mountains for delicacies in game 
from the woods and brought trout from the 
river, and seemed constantly to fear that they 
were neglecting some courtesy expected of 
them. 

They finally got up a war tournament, and 
six hundred armed and mounted Indians, in 
their war paint, with savage yells bore down to- 
ward the tents of the ladies, and it was almost 
too realistic of savage life to be enjoyed. 

Here the brides were permitted to rest for 
ten days, and until their tired animals could re- 
cuperate. The scenery along the last three hun- 
dred miles was most charming, and almost made 
the travelers forget the precipitous climbs and 
the steep descents. The days sped past, and the 
wagon being left behind to be sent for later on, 
the wedding party marched more rapidly. 
They reached Walla Walla river, eight miles 
from the fort, the last day of August, and on 
September ist they made an early start and 
galloped into the fort, The party was hospitably 
received. 

6 



82 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

Says Mrs. Whitman: "They were just eat- 
ing breakfast when we arrived, and soon we 
were seated at the table and treated to fresh sal- 
mon, potatoes, tea, bread and butter. What a 
variety, thought I. You cannot imagine what 
an appetite these rides in the mountains give a 
person." 

We have preferred to let Mrs. Whitman tell 
in her own way the story of this memorable 
wedding journey. The reader will look in vain 
for any mourning or disquietude. Two noble 
women started in to be the help-meets of two 
good men, and what a grand success they made 
of it. There is nowhere any spirit of grum- 
bling, but on the contrary, a joyousness and exhil- 
eration. True womanhood of all time is hon- 
ored in the lives of such women. It was but the 
coming of the first white women who ever 
crossed the Rocky Mountains and notable as an 
heroic wedding journey, but to the world it was 
not only exalted heroism, but a great historic 
event, the building of an empire whose wide- 
reaching good cannot easily be overestimated. 

It was an event unparalleled in real or ro- 
mantic literature, and so pure and exalted in 
its motives, and prosecuted so unostentatiouly, as 
to honor true womanhood for all time to come. 



CHAPTER V. 



MISSION LIFE IN WAIILATPUI. 



Most writers speaK of the Mission at Waiilat- 
pui, as "The Presbyterian Mission." While it 
does not much matter whether it was Presby- 
terian or Congregational, it is well to have the 
history correct. The two great churches at that 
time were united in their foreign missionary 
work, and their missionaries were taken from 
both denominations. A year or more ago I 
asked the late Professor Marcus Whitman Mont- 
gomery, of the Chicago Theological Seminary (a 
namesake of Dr. Whitman) , to go over Dr. Whit- 
man's church record while in Boston. He sends 
me the following, which may be regarded as au- 
thentic. 

Ravenswood, Chicago, 

Jan. 5, 1894. 
Dr. O. W. Nixon, 

Dear Sir: The record of Dr. Whitman's 
church membership is as follows: Converted 
during a revival in the Congregational Church 



84 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

at Plainfield, Mass., in 1819, Rev. Moses Hallock, 
pastor. His first joining of a church was at 
Rushville, Yates Co., N. Y., where he joined the 
Congregational Church in 1824, Rev. David 
Page, pastor. He was a member of this church 
for nine years, then he removed to Wheeler 
Centre, Steuben Co., N. Y. There being no 
Congregational Church there he joined the Pres- 
byterian Church of Wheeler Centre, Rev. James 
T. Hotchkiss, pastor. He was a member of this 
Presbyterian Church for three years, then he 
went to the Pacific Coast. This mission church 
was Presbyterian in name and Congregational in 
practice, while Whitman and the other mission- 
aties were supported by the American Board. 
The American Board was always Congrega- 
tional, but, at that time, the Presbyterians were 
co-operating with the American Board. 

These are the bottom facts as I have every 
reason to believe. 

Very truly yours, 
Marcus Whitman Montgomery. 

The Rev. H. H. Spalding was a Presbyterian, 
and the Mission Church was Presbyterian in name 
but was Congregational in practice, and had 
a confession of faith and covenant of its own. 
While the record shows Whitman to have been 
a Congregationalist, it also shows that he united 
with the Presbyterian Church when he settled at 
Wheeler Centre, N. Y., where there was no Con- 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 85 

gregational Church. But the fact remains that 
his memory and the acts of his grand life are 
amply sufficient to interest both these great de- 
nominations. 

Mrs.Whitman joined the Presbyterian Church 
when a young girl of eleven. 

Dr. Whitman was born at Rushville, N. Y., 
Sept. 4, 1802, and was thirty-three years old 
when he entered upon his work in Oregon. 
When first converted he resolved to study for 
the ministry, but a chain of circumstances 
changed his plans and he studied medicine. The 
early hardships and privations educated him into 
an admirable fitness for the chosen work of his 
life. 

Picture that little missionary band as they 
stood together at Fort Walla Walla in Septem- 
ber, 1836, and consulted about the great pro- 
blems to solve. It was all new. There were no 
precedents to guide them. They easily under- 
stood that the first thing to do was to consult the 
ruling powers of Oregon — -the Hudson Bay Com- 
pany officials at Fort Vancouver. This would re- 
quire another journey of three hundred miles, but 
as it could be made in boats, and the Indians 
were capital oarsmen, they resolved to take their 
wives with them, and thus complete the wedding 
journey. 

The gallant Dr. McLoughlin, Chief Factor 
of the Hudson Bay Co., was a keen judge of 



00 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

human nature, and read men and women as 
scholars read books, and he was captivated with 
the open, manly ways of Dr. Whitman and the 
womanly accomplishments of the fair young 
wife, who had braved the perils of an overland 
journey with wholly unselfish purposes. Whit- 
man soon developed to Dr. McLoughlin all his 
plans and his hopes. Perhaps there was a profes- 
sional free masonry between the men that 
brought them closer together, but, by nature, 
they were both men endowed richly with the 
best manly characters. 

Dr. McLoughlin resolved to do the best thing 
possible for them, while he still protected the in- 
terests of his great monopoly. Dr. Whitman's 
idea, was to build one mission at the Dalles so 
as to be convenient to shipping; McLoughlin at 
once saw it would not do. He had already 
pushed the Methodist Mission far up the Willa- 
mette out of the way of the Fort and its work, 
and argued with Whitman that it would be best 
for him to go to the Walla Walla country, three 
hundred miles away, and Spalding, one hundred 
and twenty-five miles farther on. 

He argued that the river Indians were far 
less hopeful subjects to deal with, and that the 
bunch grass Indians, the Cayuse and Nez Perces, 
had expressed a great anxiety for teachers. This 
arrangement had been partially agreed to by 
Mr. Parker the year before. After a full canvass 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 87 

of the entire subject, Dr. McLoughlin promised 
all the aid in his power to give them a comfort- 
able start. 

At his earnest petition, Mrs. Whitman and 
Mrs. Spalding remained at Vancouver while 
their husbands went back to erect houses that 
would shelter them from the coming winter. To 
make Mrs. Whitman feel at ease, and that she 
was not taxing the generosity of their new friends, 
Dr. McLoughlin placed his daughter under her 
instruction, both in her class work and music. 
Every effort was made to interest and entertain 
the guests; the afternoons were given to excur- 
sions on the water, or on horseback, or in ram- 
bles through the great fir forests, still as wild as 
nature made them. 

There is a grandeur in the great forest be- 
yond the Stony Mountains unequaled in any por- 
tion of the world. In our Northern latitudes the 
undergrowth isso thick as to make comfortable 
traveling impossible, but in the fir woods and in 
the pine and redwood forests of Oregon, there 
are comparatively few of such obstructions. The 
great giants ten or twelve feet in diameter, two 
hundred and seventy feet high, and one hundred 
feet without a limb, hide the sun, and upon a 
summer day make jaunts through the forest de- 
lightful to a lover of nature. 

It was a grand rest and a pleasing finale to 
the hardships of the wedding journey for these 



00 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

heroic women, and Mrs. Whitman, in her diary, 
never a day neglects to remember her kind ben- 
efactors. They rested here for about one and a 
half months when Mr. Spalding came after them 
and reported the houses so far advanced as to 
give them shelter. We read the following note 
in Mrs. Whitman's diary, 1836: 

"Dec. 26th. Where are we now, and who are 
we, that we should be thus blessed of the Lord? 

1 can scarcely realize that we are thus comforta- 
bly fixed and keeping house so soon after our 
marriage, when considering what was then be- 
fore us. 

" We arrived here on the 10th, distance twen- 
ty-five miles from Fort Walla Walla. Found a 
house reared and the lean-to enclosed, a good 
chimney and fire-place, and the floor laid. No 
windows or doors, except blankets. My heart 
truly leaped for joy as I lighted from my 
horse, entered and seated myself before a pleas- 
ant fire (for it was now night) . It occurred to 
me that my dear parents had made a similar be- 
ginning and perhaps a more difficult one than 
ours. 

"We had neither straw, bedstead or table, 
nor anything to make them of except green cot- 
ton-wood. All our boards are sawed by hand. 
Here my husband and his laborers (two Owy- 
hees from Vancouver, and a man who crossed the 
mountains with us), and Mr. Gray had been en- 



%.-- 





, tf IT 



■■:■'■ 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 89 

camped in a tent since the 19th of October, toil- 
ing excessively hard to accomplish this much for 
our comfortable residence during the remainder 
of the winter. 

" It is, indeed, a lovely situation. We are on 
a beautiful level peninsula formed by the 
branches of the Walla Walla river, upon the' 
base of which our house stands, on the southeast 
corner, near the shore of the main river. To 
run a fence across to the opposite river on the 
north from our house — this, with the river would 
inclose three hundred acres of good land for 
cultivation, all directly under the eye. 

"The rivers are barely skirted with timber. 
This is all the woodland we can see. Beyond 
them, as far as the eye can reach, plains and 
mountains appear. On the east, a few rods 
from the house, is a range of small hills covered 
with bunch grass, very excellent food for animals 
and upon which they subsist during winter, even 
digging it from under the snow." 

This section is now reported as among the 
most fertile and beautiful places in Washington. 
Looking away in a southeasterly direction, the 
scenic beauty is grandly impressive. The Indians 
named the place Wai-i-lat-pui (the place of rye 
grass.) For twenty miles there is a level reach 
of fertile soil through which flows like a silver 
thread the Walla Walla river, while in the dis- 
tance loom up toward the clouds as a back- 



90 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

ground, the picturesque Blue Mountains. The 
greatest drawback was the long distance to any 
timber suitable for making boards, and the al- 
most entire lack of helpers. 

The Cayuse Indians seemed delighted with 
the prospect of a Mission church and school, but 
they thought it disgraceful for them to work. The 
doctor had to go from nine to fifteen miles to get 
his timber for boards, and then hew or saw them 
out by hand. It was not therefore, strange, as 
Mrs. Whitman writes in her diary, December 
26th: "No doors or windows." From the day 
he entered upon his work, Dr. Whitman was 
well nigh an incessant toiler. Every year he 
built an addition to his house. 

T. J. Furnham, who wrote a book of "Trav- 
els Across the . Great Western Prairies and 
Rocky Mountains," visited the Whitman Mission 
in September, 1839. He says, " I found 250 acres 
enclosed and 200 acres under good cultivation. 
I found forty or fifty Indian children between 
the ages of seven and eighteen years in school, 
and Mrs. Whitman an indefatigable instructor." 
"One building was in course of construction 
and a small grist mill in running order." 

He says again: "It appeared to me quite 
remarkable that the Doctor could have made so 
many improvements since the year 1836; but the 
industry which crowded every hour of the day, 
his untiring energy of character, and the very 



HOW MARCUS .WHITMAN SAVED. OREGON. 91 

efficient aid of his wife in relieving him in a 
great degree from the labors of the school, en- 
abled him, without funds for such purposes, and 
without other aid than that of a fellow mission- 
ary for short intervals, to fence, plow, build, 
plant an orchard, and do all the other laborious 
acts of opening a plantation on the face of that 
distant wilderness, learn an Indian language, and 
do the duties, meanwhile, of a physician to the 
associate stations on the Clearwater and Spo- 
kane." 

People who give their money for mis- 
sionary work can easily see that in the case in 
hand they received faithful service. This is no 
prejudiced report, but facts based upon the 
knowledge of a stranger, who had no reason to 
misrepresent or exaggerate. 

One of the first efforts of Dr. Whitman was 
to induce his Indians to build permanent homes, 
to plow, plant and sow. This the Hudson Bay 
Company had always discouraged. They wanted 
their savage aids as nomads and hunters, ready 
to move hundreds and hundreds of miles away 
in search of furs. They had never been encour- 
aged to raise either grain or fruit, cattle or sheep. 

Dr. Jonathan Edwards says, in speaking of 
The Whitman Mission in 1842: "The Indians 
were cultivating from one-fourth to four acres of 
land, had seventy head of cattle, and some of 
them a few sheep." The same author gives a 



92 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

graphic description of the painstaking work of 
Dr. and Mrs. Whitman, not only in the school 
room, but in the Indian home, to show them the 
comforts and benefits of civilization. Every 
Indian who will plant is furnished the seed. 

He also describes the orderly Sunday at the 
Mission. Up to the year 1838 the principal meat 
used as food by the Mission was horse flesh. 
The cattle were too few to be sacrificed in that 
way. In 1837 Mrs. Whitman writes in her diary, 
"We have had but little venison furnished by the 
Indians, but to supply our men and visitors we 
have bought of the Indians and eaten ten wild 
horses." 

In 1841 their stock of hogs and cattle had so 
increased that they were able to make a partial 
change of diet. 

Another witness to the value of Dr. Whit- 
man's missionary work, is Joseph Drayton, of 
Commodore Wilkes' exploring expedition of 
1841. 

He says of the Mission: "All the premises 
looked comfortable, the garden especially fine, 
vegetables and melons in great variety. The 
wheat in the fields was seven feet high and 
nearly ripe, and the corn nine feet in the tassel." 
He marks the drawbacks of the Mission, "The 
roving of the Indians, rarely staying at home 
more than three months at a time." "They are 
off after buffalo," and "again off after the sal- 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 93 

mon," and "not more than fifty or sixty remain 
during the Winter." 

These Cayuse Indians were not a numerous 
band but they were born traders, were wealthy 
and had a great influence over other tribes. 
Their wealth consisted mainly in horses; a single 
Indian Chief owned two thousand head. One 
of their good qualities Mrs. Whitman speaks of, 
is, "there are no thieves among them." She has 
to keep nothing locked out of fear from thieves; 
but they had one trying habit of which Mrs. 
Whitman had great trouble to break them, that 
was, they thought they had a right to go into 
every room in the house, and seemed to think 
that something was wrong when deprived of vis- 
iting the bed rooms of the family. 

In June, 1839, a great sorrow came to D*. 
nd Mrs. Whitman. They had but one child, a 
little girl of two years and three months old. 
In their isolated condition one can easily imag- 
ine what a large place a bright and attractive 
child would have in the heart of father and 
mother in such a home. In the pursuance of 
his duties the Doctor was absent night after 
night, and some of his more distant patients oc- 
cupied him frequently many days. 

It was at such times that Mrs. Whitman found 
great comfort and happiness in her little daugh- 
ter. The child had learned the Indian language 
and spoke it fluently, to the delight of the Indians, 



y4 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

and had learned all the songs sung in the Nez 
Perces dialect, having inherited the musical tal- 
ent of her mother. It was in September, 1839, 
that she was accidentally drowned in the Walla 
Walla River. In her diary Mrs. Whitman writes 
to her mother: 

" I cannot describe what our feelings were 
when night came and our dear child a corpse in 
the next room. We went to bed, but not to 
sleep, for sleep had departed from our eyes. 
The morning came, we arose, but our child slept 
on. I prepared a shroud for her during the day; 
we kept her four days; it was a great blessing 
and comfort to me so long as she looked natural 
and was so sweet I could caress her. • But when 
her visage began to change I felt it a great priv- 
ilege that I could put her in so safe a resting 
place as the grave, to see her no more until the 
resurrection morning." 

"Although her grave is in sight every time 1 
step out of the door my thoughts seldom wander 
there to find her. I look above with unspeakable 
delight, and contemplate her as enjoying the full 
delights of that bright world where her joys are 
perfect." 

One seldom reads a more pathetic story than 
this recorded by Mrs. Whitman, and yet, the al- 
most heartbroken mother in her anguish never 
murmurs or rebels. On the morning of the day 
she was drowned, Mrs. Whitman writes, the little 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN. SAVED OREGON. 95 

daughter was permitted to select a hymn for the 
family worship. She made a selection of the 
old time favorite: 

"ROCK OF AGES." 
"While I draw this fleeting breath, 

When my eyelids close in death; 

When I rise to world's unknown, 

And behold Thee on Thy Throne; 

Rock of ages cleft for me, 

Let me hide myself in Thee. 

When the Indians came in for the afternoon 
service Dr. Whitman turned to the same hymn 
and the baby girl again with her sweet voice 
joined in the singing. Says Mrs. Whitman: 

" This was the last we heard her sing. Little 
did we think that her young life was so fleeting 
or that those sparkling eyes would so soon be 
closed in death, and her spirit rise to world's un- 
known to behold on His Throne of glory Him 
who said, ' I will be a God to thee and thy seed 
after thee.' " 

They got water for the household use from 
the running river, and the two little tin cups 
were found in the edge of the water. An old 
Indian dived in and soon brought out the body, 
but life was extinct. 

The profoundly Christian character of the 
mother is revealed in every note of the sad 
event. 

She writes: "Lord, it is right; it is right. 
She is not mine, but thine; she was only lent to 



96 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

me to comfort me for a little season, and now dear 
Savior, Thou hast the best right to her. Thy 
will, not mine, be done." Perils and hardships 
had long been theirs, but this was their great 
sorrow. But it only seemed to excite them to 
greater achievements in the work before them. 
Not a single interest was neglected. 

The sudden death of "The Little White Cay- 
use," as the Indians called her, < seemed to es- 
trange the Indians from the Mission. They al- 
most worshipped her, and came almost daily to 
see her and hear her sing the Cayuse songs. 
The old Chief had many times said: "When I 
die I give everything I have to the "Little White 
Cayuse." From this time on the Indians fre- 
quently showed a bad spirit. They saw the flocks 
and herds of the Mission increasing, and the 
fields of waving grain, and began to grow jealous 
and make demands that would have overtaxed 
and caused fear in almost any other man than a 
Whitman. 

Both before and after his memorable ride to 
Washington, his good friend, Dr. McLoughlin, 
many times begged him to leave the Mission for 
a while, until the Indians got in a better frame of 
mind. No man knew the Indians so well as 
McLoughlin, and he saw the impending dan- 
ger; but no entreaties moved Whitman. Here 
was his life work and here he would remain. 

In these sketches there is no effort to tell the 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 97 

complete Oregon Mission story, but only so much 
of it as will make clear the heroic and patriotic 
services of Dr. and Mrs. Whitman. The reader 
will find a most careful study of the whole broad 
field of pioneer mission work upon the Pacific 
Coast, in the Rev. Myron Eells two books, the 
" History of Indian Missions," and the " Biogra- 
phy of Rev. Cushing Eells." 

How much or how little the work of the Ore- 
gon Missionaries benefitted the Indians, eternity 
alone will reveal. They simply obeyed the call 
" To preach the gospel to every creature." 

A train of circumstances, a series of evolu- 
tions in national history which they neither origi- 
nated nor could stop, were portending. But 
that the Missionaries first of all saw the drift of 
coming events, and wisely guided them to the 
peace and lasting good of the nation is as plain 
as any page of written history. 

With the light of that time, with the terrible 
massacre at Waiilatpui in sight, it is not strange 
that good people felt that there had been great 
sacrifice with small good results. All the years 
since have been correcting such false estimates. 
The American Board and the Christian people 
of the land had made their greatest mistake in 
not rallying to the defense of their martyr 
heroes. 

No "forty thousand dollars" ever spent by 
that organization before or since has been so 

7 



98 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

prolific in good. The argument to sustain this 
assertion will be found in other sketches. 

The United States Government could well 
afford to give a million dollars every year to the 
American Board for fifty years to come, and to 
endow Whitman College magnificently and then 
not pay a moiety for the benefit it has received 
as a nation, and never acknowledged. 

The best possible answer of the church and 
of the friends of missions, to those who sneer- 
ingly ask — What good has resulted to the world 
for all the millions spent on missions ? — is to 
point to that neglected grave at Waiilatpui, and 
recite the story of heroism and patriotism of Dr. 
Marcus Whitman. 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE RIDE TO SAVE OREGON. 



The world loves a hero, and the pioneer 
history of our several States furnishes as interest- 
ing characters as are anywhere recorded. In view 
of the facts and conditions already recited, the 
old Missionaries were anxious and restless, and 
yet felt in a measure powerless to avert the 
danger threatened. They believed fully that 
under the terms of the treaty of 1818, re-affirmed 
in 1828, whichever nationality settled and 
organized the territory, that nation would hold it. 

This was not directly affirmed in the terms 
of that treaty, but was so interpreted by the 
Americans and English in Oregon, and was 
greatly strengthened by the fact that leading 
Statesmen in Congress had for nearly half a cen- 
tury wholly neglected Oregon, and time and 
again gone upon record as declaring it 
worthless and undesirable. In their conferences 
the Missionaries from time to time had gone 



100 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

over the whole question, and did everything in 
their power to encourage immigration. 

Their glowing accounts of the fertility of the 
soil, the balmy climate, the towering forests, the 
indications of richness in minerals, had each 
year induced a limited number of more daring 
Americans to immigrate. 

In this work of the Missionaries, Jason Lee, 
the chief of the Methodist Missions, was, up to 
the date of the incident we are to narrate, the 
most successful of all. He was a man of great 
strength of character. Like Whitman he was 
also a man of great physical strength, fearless, 
and with it all, wise and brainy. No other man 
among the pioneers, for his untiring energy in 
courting immigration, can be so nearly classed 
with Whitman. 

They were all men, who, though in Oregon 
to convert Indian savages to Christianity, yet 
were intensely American. They thought it no 
abuse of their Christianity to carry the banner 
of the Cross in one hand and the banner of their 
country in the other. Missionaries as they were, 
thousands of miles from home, neglected by the 
Government, yet the love of country seemed to 
shine with constantly increasing lustre. 

In addition to the Missionaries, at the time of 
which we write, there was quite a population of 
agriculturists and traders in the near vicinity of 
each mission. These heartily cooperated with 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 101 

the Missionaries and shared their anxieties. 
In i840-'4i many of them met and canvassed 
the subject whether they should make an 
attempt to organize a government under the 
Stars and Stripes; but they easily saw that they 
were outnumbered by the English who were 
already organized, and were the real autocrats 
of the country. 

So the time passed until the fall of 1842, when 
Elijah White, an Indian agent for the Govern- 
ment in the Northwest, brought a party of 
Americans, men, women and children, number- 
ing one hundred and twenty, safely through to 
Waiilatpui. In this company was a more than 
usually intelligent, well-informed Christian gen- 
tleman, destined to fill an important place in our 
story, General Amos L. Lovejoy. He was 
thoroughly posted in National affairs, and gave 
Dr. Whitman his first intimation of the proba- 
bility that the Ashburton Treaty would likely 
come to a crisis before Congress adjourned in 
March 1843. This related, as it was supposed, to 
the entire boundary between the United States 
and the English possessions. 

The question had been raised in 1794. — 
"Where is 'the angle of Nova Scotia,' and where 
are the 'highlands between the angle and the 
northwest head of the Connecticut River ?' " Time 
and again it had been before commissioners, 
and diplomats had many times grown eloquent 



102 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

in explaining, but heretofore nothing had come 
of it. Much was made of it, and yet it was only 
a dispute as to who owned some twelve thousand 
and twenty acres of land, much of which was of 
little value. 

Looking back now one wonders at the short- 
sightedness of statesmen who quarreled for 
forty-eight years over this garden patch, of 
rocky land in Maine, when three great states 
were quietly slipping away with scarcely a pro- 
test. But this arrival of recruits, and this 
knowledge of the political situation revealed by 
General Lovejoy at once settled Dr. Whitman 
upon his line of duty. 

To Mrs. Whitman he at once explained the 
situation, and said he felt impelled to go to Wash- 
ington. She was a missionary's wife, a courage- 
ous, true-hearted, patriotic woman, who loved and 
believed in her husband, and at once consented. 
Under the rules the local members of the Mis- 
sion had to be consulted, and runners were at 
once dispatched to the several stations, and all 
responded promptly, as the demand was for their 
immediate presence. 

There was a second rule governing such cases 
of leave of absence, and that was the sanction, 
from headquarters, of the American Board in 
Boston. But in this emergency Dr. Whitman 
preferred to take all the responsibility and cut 
the red tape. Dr. Eells, one of the noblest of 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED' OREGON. 103 

the old Missionaries, writes an account of that 
conference, and it is all the more valuable from 
the fact that he was opposed to the enterprise. 

Dr. Eells says: "The purpose of Dr. Whit- 
man was fixed; In his estimation the saving of 
Oregon to the United States was of paramount 
importance, and he would make the attempt to 
do so, even if he had to withdraw from the Mis- 
sion in order to accomplish his purpose. In reply 
to considerations intended to hold Dr. Whitman 
to his assigned work, he said: ' I am not expatri- 
ated by becoming a missionary.' 

"The idea of his withdrawal could not be en- 
tertained. Therefore, to retain him in the Mis- 
sion, a vote to approve of his making this peril- 
ous endeavor prevailed." 

In addition to this the Doctor undoubtedly 
intended to visit the American Board, and ex- 
plain the mission work and its needs, and protest 
against some of its orders. But in this there 
was no need of such haste as to cause the mid- 
winter journey. In this note of Dr. Eells,' the 
explanation is doubtless correct. 

Dr. Spalding says: " Dr. Whitman's last re- 
marks were, as he mounted his horse for the long 
journey: 'If the Board dismisses me, I will do what 
I can to save Oregon to the Country. My life is 
of but little worth if I can save this country to 
the American people.'" 

They all regarded it a most perilous under- 



104 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

taking. They knew well of the hardships oi 
such a journey in the Summer season, when grass 
could be found to feed the stock, and men live in 
comfort in the open air. But to all their plead- 
ings and specifications of danger, Dr. Whitman 
had but one reply, "I must goV As Dr. Eells 
says: — "They finally all yielded when he said, I 
will go, even if I have to break my connection 
with the American Board." They all loved him, 
and he was too valuable a man for them to allow 
that. 

Besides, they became thoroughly convinced 
that the man and the missionary had received a 
call from a higher source than an earthly one, and 
a missionary board should not stand in the way. 
It was resolved that he must not be allowed to 
make such a journey alone. A call was at once 
made, "Who will volunteer to go with him?" 
Again the unseen power was experienced when 
General Lovejoy said: "I will go with Dr. Whit- 
man." 

The man seems to have been sent for just 
such a purpose. Aside from the fact that he was 
tired out with the long five months' ride upon 
the plains, and had not been fully rested, no 
better man could have been chosen. He was an 
educated, Christian gentleman, full of cheerful- 
ness, brave, cautious, and a true friend. 

Mrs. Whitman, in her diary, dwells upon this 
with loving thoughtfulness, and her soul breaks 




MRS. NARCISSA PRENTICE WHITMAN. 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 10£ 

forth in thanksgiving to the good Father above, 
who has sent so good and true a companion for 
the long and dangerous journey. She refers tc 
it again and again that he will have a friend in 
his hours of peril and danger, and not have to 
depend entirely upon the savages for his society. 

The conference passed a resolution, as stated, 
giving leave of absence and fixed the time for 
his starting in "five days" from that day. It 
was not often they had such an opportunity for 
letter-carriers, and each began a voluminous cor- 
respondence. 

The Doctor set about his active preparations, 
arranging his outfit and seeing that everything 
was in order. The next day he had a call to see 
a sick man at old Fort Walla Walla, and as he 
needed many articles for his journey which could 
be had there, he went with this double purpose. 
He found at the Fort a score or more of traders, 
clerks and leading men of the Hudson Bay Com- 
pany, assembled there. They were nearly all 
Englishmen, and the discussion soon turned upon 
the treaty, and the outlook, and as might be in- 
ferred, was not cheering to Whitman. But his 
object was to gain information and not to argue. 

The dinner was soon announced and the Doc- 
tor sat down to a royal banquet with his jovial 
English friends. For no man was more highly 
esteemed by all than was Whitman. The chief 
factor at Vancouver, Dr. McLoughlin, from the 



106 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

very outset of their acquaintance, took a liking 
to both the Doctor and Mrs. Whitman, and in 
hundreds of cases showed them marked and 
fatherly kindness. Mrs. Whitman, in her diary, 
recently published in the proceedings of the Ore- 
gon State Historical Society, mainly in the years 
1891 and 1893, often refers to the fatherly kind- 
ness of the good old man whose home she shared 
for weeks and months, and he begged her when 
first reaching Oregon to stop all Winter and wait 
until her own humble home could be made com- 
fortable. 

But while the company were enjoying their 
repast, an express messenger of the company ar- 
rived from Fort Colville, three hundred and fifty 
miles up the Columbia, and electrified his audi- 
ence by the announcement that a colony of one 
hundred and forty Englishmen and Canadians 
were on the road. 

In such a company, it is easy to see such an 
announcement was exciting news. One young 
priest threw his cap in the air and shouted, 
"Hurrah for Oregon — America is too late, we 
have got the country." 

Dr. Whitman carefully concealed all his in- 
tentions — in fact this was enjoined upon all the 
missionary band, as publicity would likely defeat 
any hope of good results. Those who will take 
the pains to read Mrs. Whitman's diary, will no- 
tice how she avoids saying anything to excite 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 107 

comment regarding the purposes of his Winter 
visit to Washington. In her letters to her father 
and mother she simply says: "I expect my dear 
husband will be so full of his great work that he 
will forget to tell you of our life in Oregon. He 
can explain what it is," etc. 

It is said "Women cannot keep a secret," but 
here is an instance of one that did. In his ab- 
sence she visited Fort Vancouver, Astoria, Ore- 
gon City, and other points. She is painstaking 
in keeping a regular record of every-day events. 
But the secret of his mission to the States was 
perfectly safe with the good wife. 

As soon as the Doctor could with politeness 
excuse himself, he mounted his pony and gal- 
loped away home, pondering the news he had 
received. By the time he reached Waiilatpui he 
resolved there must be no tarrying for "five 
days." On the morning of the third day after 
the conference, the spirit was upon him, and he 
took such messages as were ready, and on Oc- 
tober 3rd, 1842, bade a long good-bye to his 
wife and home, and the two men, their guide 
and three pack mules, began that ever memor- 
able journey — escorted for a long distance by 
many Cayuse braves. 

Intelligent readers of all classes can easily 
mark the heroism of such an undertaking under 
such circumstances, but the old plainsman and 
the mountaineer who know the terrors of the 



108 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

journey, will point to it as without a parallel in 
all history. It was surmised by most that it was 
"A ride down to the valley of the shadow of 
death." 

It is comforting and assuring of that power 
which sustains a believing soul, to turn the pages 
of the diary of Mrs. Whitman, as day by day she 
follows the little caravan with thought and 
prayer, and see with what confidence she ex- 
presses the belief that an Almighty Arm is 
guiding her loved one in safety through all 
perils. 

It is easy to surmise the feelings of the Mis- 
sionary band when they sent in their letters and 
messages, and learned that the Doctor was far 
on his journey and had not waited the required 
limit of "five days." 

The echo of dissatisfaction was heard even 
for years after, very much to the disturbance of 
the good wife. And she in her diary expresses 
profound thankfulness when, years after, the 
last vestige of criticism ceased, and the old cor- 
diality was restored. 

As for Dr. Whitman, with his whole being 
impressed with the importance of his work and 
the need for haste, it is doubtful whether he 
even remembered the "five days" limit. 

The great thought with him was, I must 
reach Washington before Congress adjourns, or 
all maybe lost. The after disclosures convinced 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 109 

the aggrieved Missionaries that Whitman was 
right, and they deeply regretted some of the 
sharp criticisms they made and wrote East. 

With horses fresh, the little company made 
a rapid ride, reaching Fort Hall in eleven days. 
The road thus far was plain and familiar to 
every member of the party. Prior to leaving 
home there had been rumors that the Blackfoot 
Indians had suddenly grown hostile, and would 
make the journey dangerous along the regular 
line of travel. 

Upon reaching Fort Hall, Captain Grant, who 
seems to have been placed at that point solely 
to discourage and defeat immigration, set about 
his task in the usual way. Without knowing, he 
shrewdly suspected that the old Missionary had 
business of importance on hand which it would 
be well to thwart. He had before had many a 
tilt with Whitman and knew something of his 
determination. It was Grant who had almost 
compelled every incoming settler to forsake his 
wagon at Fort Hall, sacrifice his goods, and force 
women and children to ride on horseback or go 
on foot the balance of the journey. 

Six years before he had plead with Whit- 
man to do this, and had failed, and Whitman 
had thus taken the first wagon into Oregon 
that ever crossed the Rockies. Now he set 
about to defeat his journey to the States. He 
told of the hopelessness of a journey over the 



110 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

Rocky Mountains, with snow already twenty feet 
deep. He also informed him that from recent 
advices the Sioux and Pawnee Indians were at 
war, and it would be almost certain death to the 
party to undertake to pass through their country. 

This, all told for a single purpose, was partly 
true and partly false. The writer, a few years 
after, when war broke out between the Chey- 
ennes and the Pawnees, passed entirely through 
the Cheyenne country and was treated with the 
utmost courtesy and kindness by the Cheyenne 
braves. 

But Captain Grant's argument had more ef- 
fect upon Whitman than upon a former occasion. 
The Captain even began to hope that he had 
effectually blocked the way. But he was dealing 
with a man of great grit, not easily discouraged, 
and, we may say it reverently, an inspired man. 
He had started to go to the States and he would 
continue his journey. 

Captain Grant was at his wits end. He had 
no authority to stop Whitman and his party; he 
carried with him a permit signed by "Lewis Cass, 
Secretary of War," commanding all in authority 
to protect, aid, etc. 

The American Board was as careful in having 
all Oregon Missionaries armed with such cre- 
dentials as if sending them to a foreign land, 
and, in fact, there was no vestige of American 
government in Oregon in that day. The Hud- 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. Ill 

son Bay Company, wholly English, ruled over 
everything, whether whites or Indians. 

Much to Captain Grant's chagrin, Whitman, 
instead of turning backward, set out southeast to 
discover a new route to the States. He knew in 
a general way the lay of the mountain ranges, 
but he had never heard that a white man's foot 
had passed that way. First east and south from 
Fort Hall, in the direction of the now present 
site of Salt Lake City, from thence to Fort 
Uintah and Fort Uncompahgra, then to Taos, 
Santa Fe, to Bents' Fort, and St. Louis. This 
course led them over some very rough moun- 
tainous country. 

In his diary Gen. Lovejoy says, "From Fort 
Hall to Fort Uintah we met with terribly severe 
weather. The deep snow caused us to lose 
much time. Here we took a new guide 
to Fort Uncompahgra on Grand River in 
Spanish country, which we safely reached and 
employed a new guide there Passing over a 
high mountain on ourway toTaos we encountered 
a terrible snow storm, which compelled us to 
seek shelter in a dark defile, and although we 
made several attempts to press on, we were de- 
tained some ten days. When we got upon the 
mountain again we met with another violent 
snow storm, which almost blinded man and 
beast. The pelting snow and cold made the 
dumb brutes well nigh unmanageable." 



112 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

Finally the guide stopped ana acknowledged 
he was lost and would go no farther, and they 
resolved to return to their camp in the sheltered 
ravine. But the drifting snow had obliterated 
every sign of the path by which they had come, 
and the guide acknowledged that he could not 
direct the way. In this dire dilemma, says Gen. 
Lovejoy, " Dr. Whitman dismounted and upon 
his knees in the snow commended himself, his 
distant wife, his missionary companions and work, 
and his Oregon, to the Infinite One for guidance 
and protection." 

" The lead mule left to himse?f by the guide, 
turning his long ears this way and that, finally 
started plunging through the snow drifts, his 
Mexican guide and all the party following instead 
of guiding, the old guide remarking, ' This 
mule will find camp if he can live long enough to 
reach it.' And he did." As woodsmen well know 
this knowledge of directions in dumb brutes is 
far superior often to the wisest judgment of 
men. 

The writer well remembers a terrible experi- 
ence when lost in the great forests of Arkansas, 
covered with the back water from the Mississippi 
River, which was rapidly rising. Two of us rode 
for hours. The water would grow deeper in one 
direction; we would try another and find it no 
better; we were hopelessly lost. My companion 
was an experienced woodsman and claimed that 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 113 

he was going in the right direction, so I followed 
until in despair I called to him, and showed him 
the high water mark upon the trees ten feet 
above our heads as we sat upon our horses. 

I remarked, "I have followed you; now you 
follow me. I am going to let my old horse find 
the way out." I gave Kim the rein; he seemed 
to understand it. He raised his head, took an 
observation, turned at right angles from the way 
we had insisted was our course, wound around 
logs and past marshes, and in two hours brought 
us safely to camp. 

This incident of Dr. Whitman's mule, as well 
as all such, educates one in kindness to all dumb 
animal life. 

Reaching camp the guide at once announced 
that, "I will go no farther; the way is impos- 
sible." "This," says General Lovejoy, "was a 
terrible blow to Dr. Whitman. He had already 
lost more than ten days of valuable time." But 
it would be impossible to move without a guide. 
Whitman was a man who knew no such word as 
fail. His order was, " I must go on." 

There was but one thing to do. He said to 
General Lovejoy, " You stay in camp and re- 
cuperate and feed the stock, and I will return 
with the guide to Fort Uncompahgra, and get a 
new man." 

And so Lovejoy began "recuperation," and 
recuperated his dumb animals by collecting the 

8 



114 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

brush and inner bark of the willows upon which 
they fed. It is astonishing how a mule or horse 
on. the plains can find food enough to live on, 
under such conditions. 

The writer had a pet mule in one of his jour- 
neys over the great plains, which he would tie to 
a sage bush near the tent when not a vestige of 
grass was anywhere in sight, and yet waking up 
in the night at any hour I would hear Ben paw- 
ing and chewing. He would paw up the tender 
roots of the sage and in the morning look as 
plump and full as if he had feasted on good num- 
ber two corn. 

"The Doctor," says Lovejoy, "was gone just 
one week, when he again reached our camp in 
the ravine with a new guide." 

The storm abated and they passed over the 
mountain and made good progress toward Taos. 

Their most severe experience was on reach- 
ing Grand River. People who know, mark this 
as one of the most dangerous and treacherous 
rivers in the West. Its rapid, deep, cold cur- 
rent, even in the Summer, is very much dreaded. 
Hundreds of people have lost their lives in it. 
Where they struck the Grand it was about six 
hundred feet wide. Two hundred feet upon 
each shore was solid ice, while a rushing torrent 
two hundred feet wide was between. 

The guide studied it, and said, "It is too dan- 
gerous to attempt to cross." " We must cross, and 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 115 

at once," said Whitman. He got down from his 
horse, cut a willow pole eight feet long, put it 
upon his shoulder, and after remounting said: 
" Now you shove me off." Lovejoy and the guide 
did as ordered, and the General says, " Both 
horse and rider temporarily went out of sight, 
but soon appeared, swimming. The horse struck 
the rocky bottom and waded toward the shore 
where the Doctor, dismounting, broke the ice 
with his pole and helped his horse out. Wood 
was plentiful and he soon had a roaring fire. As 
readers well know, in a wild country where the 
lead animal has gone ahead, the rest are eager 
to follow, regardless of danger, and the General 
and his guide, after breaking the ice, had no 
difficulty in persuading their horses and pack- 
mules to make the plunge into the icy flood. 
They all landed in safety and spent the day in 
thoroughly drying out. 

"Is the route passable?" asked Napoleon of 
his engineer. "Barely possible, sire," replied 
the engineer. "Then let the column move at 
once," said the Great Commander. The reader, 
in the incident of the Grand and on the moun- 
tains, sees the same hero who refused to believe 
the "impossible" of Captain Grant, at Fort Hall, 
and took that "historic wagon" to Oregon. It 
looked like a small event to take a wagon to 
Oregon, shattered and battered by the rocks 
and besetments of the long three thousand mile 



116 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON 

journey. The good wife many times mourned 
that the Doctor should "Wear himself out in 
getting that wagon through." "Yesterday," she 
says, "it was overset in the river and he was wet 
from head to foot getting it out; to-day it was 
upset on the mountain-side, and it was hard work 
to save it." The dear woman did not know it 
was an inspired wagon, the very implement upon 
which the fate of Oregon would turn. Small 
events are sometimes portentous, and the wagon 
that Whitman wheeled into Oregon, as we shall 
soon see, was of this character. 

One of the Providential events was, that the 
little company had been turned aside from the 
attempt to make the journey over the direct 
route and sent over this unexplored course, 
fully one thousand miles longer. The Winter of 
1842-43 was very cold, and the snow throughout 
the West was heavy. From many of these 
storms they were protected by the ranges of 
high mountains, and what was of great value, 
had plenty of firewood; while on the other route 
for a thousand miles they would have had to 
depend mainly upon buffalo chips for fire, 
which it would have been impossible to find 
when the ground was covered with snow. To 
the traveler good fires in camp are a great com- 
fort. 

Even as it was, they suffered from the 
cold, all of them being severely frosted. Dr. 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 117 

Whitman, when he reached Washington, was suf- 
fering from frozen feet, hands and ears, al- 
though he had taken every precaution to pro- 
tect himself and his companions. 

The many vexatious delays had caused not 
only the loss of valuable time, but they had run 
out of provisions. A dog had accompanied the 
party and they ate him; a mule came next, 
and that kept them until they came to Santa 
Fe, where there was plenty. Santa Fe is one of the 
oldest cities upon the continent occupied by 
English speaking people. The Doctor, anxious 
for news, could find little there, and only stopped 
long enough to recruit his supplies. He was 
in no mood to enjoy the antiquities of this fa- 
mous resort of all the heroes of the plains. 

Pushing on over the treeless prairies, they 
made good headway towards Bent's Fort on the 
head waters of the Arkansas. The grass for 
the horses was plentiful. That is one of the 
prime requisites of the campaigner upon the 
plains. Had there been time for hunting, all 
along their route they could have captured any 
amount of wild game, but as it was, they at- 
tempted nothing except it came directly in the 
way. They even went hungry rather than lose 
an hour in the chase. 

There was one little incident which may 
seem very small, but the old campaigner will 
see that it was big with importance. They lost 



118 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

their axe. It was after a long tedious day 
crossing a bleak prairie, when they reached one 
of the tributaries of the Arkansas river. On 
the opposite side was wood in great plenty. On 
their side there was none. The river was frozen 
over with smooth, clear ice, scarcely thick 
enough to bear a man. They must have wood. 

The Doctor seized the axe, lay down on the 
ice and snaked himself across on the thin 
crust. He cut loads of wood and pushed it be- 
fore him or skated it across and returned in 
safety; but unfortunately split the axe heve. 
This they soon remedied by binding it with a 
fresh deer skin thong. But as it lay in the edge 
of the tent that night, a thieving wolf wanting 
the deer skin, took the axe and all, and they 
could find no trace of it. The great good for- 
tune was, that such a catastrophe did not oc- 
cur a thousand mixes back. It is barely pos- 
sible it might have defeated the enterprise. 

"When within about four days journey of 
Bent's Fort," says General Lovejoy, "we met 
George Bent, a brother of General Bent, with a 
caravan on his way to Taos. He told us that a 
party of mountain men would leave Bent's Fort 
in a few days for St. Louis, but said we could not 
reach the Fort with our pack animals in time to 
join the party." 

"The Doctor being very anxious to join it and 
push on to Washington, concluded to leave 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. lli> 

myself and guide with the packs, and he himself 
taking the best animal, with some bedding and a 
small allowance of provision, started on alone, 
hoping by rapid traveling to reach the Fort 
before the party left. But to do so he would 
have to travel upon the Sabbath, something we 
had not done before." 

"Myself and guide traveled slowly and 
reached the fort in four days, but imagine my 
astonishment when told the Doctor had not 
arrived nor been heard from. As this portion 
of the journey was infested by gangs of gray 
wolves, that had been half starved during the 
snows and cold weather, our anxiety for the 
Doctor's safety was greatly increased. Every 
night our camp would be surrounded by them 
coming even to the door of the tent, and every- 
thing eatable had to be carefully stored and our 
animals picketed where we could defend them 
with our rifles; when a wolf fell he would 
instantly be devoured by his fellows." 

"If not killed we knew the Doctor was lost. 
Being furnished by the gentlemen of the Fort 
with a good guide I started to search for him 
and travelled up the river* about one hundred 
miles. I learned by the Indians that a man who 
was lost had been there and he was trying to 
find Bent's Fort. They said they had directed 
him down the river and how to find the Fort. I 
knew from their description that it was the 



120 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

Doctor, and I returned as rapidly as possible; 
but he had not arrived." 

"Late in the afternoon he came in much 
fatigued and almost desponding. He said that 
God had hindered him for traveling on the 
Holy Sabbath." Says General Lovejoy: "This 
was the only time I ever knew him to travel on 
Sunday." 

The party which the Doctor was to accom- 
pany to St. Louis had already started, but was 
kindly stopped by a runner, and it was in camp 
waiting his coming. Tired as he was, he tarried 
but a single night at Fort Bent, and again with 
a guide hurried on to overtake the caravan 
This was a dangerous part of the journey. Sav- 
age beasts and savage men were both to be 
feared. 

In pioneer days the borders of civilization 
were always infested by the worst class of peo- 
ple, both whites and Indians. This made the 
Doctor more anxious for an escort. General 
Lovejoy remained at the Fort until he entirely 
recovered from his fatigue, and went on with 
the next caravan passing eastward to St. Louis. 
In a letter to Dr. Atkinson, published in full in 
the appendix to this volume, General Lovejoy 
recites many interesting incidents of this jour- 
ney. Before reaching St. Louis, General Love- 
joy immediately began to advertise the emigra- 
tion for the following May. 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 121 

Dr. Barrows, in his fine volume "Oregon — 
the struggle for possession," says: "Upon the 
arrival of Dr. Whitman in St. Louis it was my 
good fortune that he should be quartered as a 
guest under the same roof and at the same table 
with me." Those interested in the news from 
the plains, the trappers and traders in furs and 
Indian goods, gathered about him and beset him 
with a multitude of questions. Answering them 
courteously he in turn asked about Congress. 
Whether the Ashburton Treaty had been con- 
cluded ? and whether it covered the Northwest 
territory ? The treaty he learned had been 
signed Aug. 9th long before he left Oregon, and 
had been confirmed by the Senate and signed by 
the President on Nov. 10th, while he was floun- 
dering in the snow upon the mountains." 

But the Oregon question was still open, and 
only the few acres up in Maine had been fixed. 
The question he was eager to have answered 
was "Is the Oregon question still pending, and 
can I get there before Congress adjourns ?" 
The river was frozen, and he t had to depend 
upon the stage, and even from St. Louis a jour- 
ney to Washington in mid-winter at that time, 
was no small matter. But to a man like Whit- 
man with muscles trained, and a brain which 
never seemed to tire, it was counted as nothing. 

Dr. Barrows says, " Marcus Whitman once 
seen, and in our family circle, telling of his busi- 



122 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

ness, he had but one, was a man not to be for- 
gotten by the writer. He was of medium height, 
more compact than spare, a stout shoulder, and 
large head not much above it, covered with stiff 
iron gray hair, while his face carried all the 
moustache and whiskers that four months had 
been able to put on it. He carried himself 
awkwardly, though perhaps courteously enough 
for trappers, Indians, mules and grizzlies, his 
principal company for six years. He seemed 
built as a man for whom more stock had been 
furnished than worked in symmetrically and 
gracefully." 

"There was nothing quick in his motion or 
speech, and no trace of a fanatic; but under con- 
trol of a thorough knowledge of his business, and 
with deep, ardent convictions about it, he was a 
profound enthusiast. A willtull resolution and a 
tenacious earnestness would impress you as 
marking the man." 

"He wore coarse fur garments with buckskin 
breeches. He had a buffalo overcoat, with a 
head hood for emergencies, with fur leggins and 
boot moccasins. His legs and feet fitted his 
Mexican stirrups. If my memory is not at fault 
his entire dress when on the street did not show 
one inch of woven fabric." 

One can easily see that a dress of such kind 
and upon such a man would attract attention at 
the National Capital. But the history of the 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 123 

event nowhere hints that the old pioneer suf- 
fered in any quarter from his lack of fashionable 
garments. It was before the day of interview- 
ing newspapers, but the men in authority in 
Washington soon learned of his coming and 
showed him every courtesy and kindness. He 
would have been lionized had he encouraged it. 
But he had not imperilled life for any such pur- 
pose. He was, after a three thousand miles ride, 
there upon a great mission and for business, and 
time was precious. 

Almost in despair he had prayed that he 
might be enabled to reach the Capital of the 
Nation and make his plea for his land, Oregon, 
before it was too late. And here he was. 
Would he be given an audience ? Would he be 
believed ? Would he succeed ? These were 
the questions uppermost in his mind. 



CHAPTER VII. 



Whitman in the presence of president tyler and 

secretary of state daniel webster, and 

the return to oregon. 



It has been an American boast that the Pres- 
ident of the United States is within the reach of 
the humblest subject. This was truer years ago 
than now, and possibly with some reason for it. 
Unfortunately the historian has no recorded ac- 
count of the interview between the President, 
his Secretary of State and Whitman. Whitman 
worked for posterity, but did not write for it. 

For his long journey over the plains in 1836 
and the many entertaining and exciting events 
we are wholly dependent upon Mrs. Whitman, 
and for the narrative of the perilous ride to save 
Oregon, we are dependent upon the brief notes 
made by General Lovejoy, and from personal 
talks with many friends. Whitman always seemed 
too busy to use pencil or pen, and yet when he 

124 




HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON, 12o 



did write, as a few recorded specimens show, 
he was remarkably clear, precise and forcible. 
But while we have no written statement of the 
celebrated interview/Dr. Whitman, in many pri- 
vate conversations with friends in Oregon said 
enough to give a fair and clear account of it. 

It will require no stretch of imagination in 
any intelligent reader to suppose, that a man who 
had undergone the hardships and perils he had, 
would be at a loss how to present his case in the 
most forcible and best possible method. He 
was an educated man, a profound thinker; and 
he knew every phase of the questions he had to 
present, and no man of discernment could look 
into his honest eyes and upon his manly bearing, 
without acknowledging that they were in the 
presence of the very best specimen of American 
Christian manhood. 

Both President Tyler and Secretary of State 
Daniel Webster, speedily granted him an audi- 
ence. Some time in the future some great artist 
will paint a picture of this historic event. The 
old pioneer, in his leather breeches and worn 
and torn fur garments, and with frozen limbs, 
just in from a four thousand mile ride, is a pic- 
ture by himself, but standing in the presence of 
the President and his great Secretary, to plead 
for Oregon and the old flag, the subject for a 
painter is second to none in American history. 

Some writers have said that Whitman " had 



126 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON, 

a chilling reception from Secretary Webster." 
Of this there is not a shadow of proof. It has also 
been asserted that Whitman assailed the Ash- 
burton-Webster Treaty. This much only is true, 
that Whitman regarded the issues settled as 
comparatively insignificent to those involved in 
the possession and boundaries of Oregon; but 
he was profoundly grateful that in the treaty, 
Oregon had in no way been sacrificed, as he had 
feared. 

General Lovejoy says, " Dr. Whitman often 
related to me during our homeward journey the 
incidents of his reception by the President and 
his Secretary. He had several interviews with 
both of them, as well as with many of the lead- 
ing senators and members of Congress." The 
burden of his speech in all these, says General 
Lovejoy, was to "immediately terminate the 
treaty of 1818 and 1828, and extend the laws of 
the United States over Oregon." It takes a most 
credulous reader to doubt that. 

For months prior to Whitman's visit to 
Washington in diplomatic circles it was well 
understood that there were negotiations on foot 
to trade American interests in Oregon for the 
fisheries of Newfoundland. Dr. Whitman soon 
heard of it, and heard it given as a reason why 
the boundary line between Oregon and the 
British possessions had been left open and only 
the little dispute in Maine adjusted. 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 127 

According to all reports we can gather from 
the Doctor's conversations, there was only one 
time in the several conferences in which he and 
Secretary Webster got warm and crossed swords. 
Secretary Webster had received castigation 
from political leaders, and sharp criticism from 
his own party over the Ashburton Treaty, and 
was ready to resent every remote allusion to it, 
as a give away of American interests. In 
defence of Secretary Webster it has been 
asserted that "he had no intention of making 
such an exchange." But his well-known previ- 
ous views, held in common by the leading states- 
men of the day, already referred to, and openly 
expressed in Congress and upon the rostrum, 
that " Oregon was a barren worthless country, fit 
only for wild beasts and wild men, gave the air of 
truth to the reportd negotiation." This he 
emphasized by the interruption of Whitman in 
one of his glowing descriptions of Oregon, by 
saying in effect that "Oregon was shut off by 
impassable mountains and a great desert, which 
made a wagon road impossible." 

Then, says Whitman, I replied, " Mr. Secre- 
tary that is the grand mistake that has been 
made by listening to the enemies of American 
interests in Oregon. Six years ago I was told 
there was no wagon road to Oregon, and it was 
impossible to take a wagon there, and yet in 
despite of pleadings and almost threats, I took a 



128 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

wagon over the road, and have it now." This 
was the historic wagon. It knocked all the 
argument out of the great Secretary. Facts are 
stubborn things to meet, and when told by a 
man like Whitman it is not difficult to imagine 
their effect. 

He assured the Secretary that the possibili- 
ties of the territory beyond the Rockies were 
boundless, that under the poorest cultivation 
everything would grow; that he had tested a 
variety of crops and the soil made a wonderful 
yield. That not only is the soil fertile, the cli- 
mate healthful and delightful, but there is every 
evidence of the hills and mountains being rich in 
ores; while the great forests are second to none 
in the world. But it was the battered old wagon 
that was the clinching argument that could not 
be overcome. No four wheeled vehicle ever 
before in history performed such notable service. 
The real fact was, the Doctor took it into Oregon 
on two wheels, but he carefully hauled the other 
two wheels inside as precious treasures. He 
seems to have had a prophetic view of the value 
of the first incoming wagon from the United 
States. The events show his wisdom. 

Proceeding with his argument Dr. Whitman 
said: "Mr. Secretary you had better give all 
New England for the cod and mackerel fisheries 
of New Foundland than to barter away Oregon." 

From the outset, and at every audience 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 129 

granted, President Tyler treated Dr. Whitman 
with the greatest deference. He was a new 
character in the experience of both these 
polished and experienced politicians. Never 
before had they listened to a man who so elo- 
quently plead for the cause of his country, with 
no selfish aim in sight. He asked for no money, 
or bonds, or land, or office, or anything, except 
that which would add to the nation's wealth, the 
glory and honor of the flag, and the benefit of 
the hardy pioneer of that far-off land, that the 
nation had for more than a third of the century 
wholly neglected. It was a powerful appeal to 
the manly heart of President Tyler, and as the 
facts show, was not lost on Secretary Webster. 

The Rev. H. H. Spalding, Whitman's early 
associate in the Oregon work, had many confer- 
ences with Whitman after his return to Oregon. 
Spalding says, speaking of the conference: 
"Webster's interest lay too near to Cape Cod to 
see things as Whitman did, while he conceded 
sincerity to the Missionary, but he was loth to 
admit that a six years' residence there gave 
Whitman a wider knowledge of the country 
than that possessed by Governor Simpson, who 
had explored every part of it and represented it as 
a sandy desert, cut off from the United States by 
impassable mountains, and fit only for wild ani- 
mals and savage men." 

With the light we now have upon the subject 

9 



V60 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

the greater wonder is that a brainy man lik^ 
Webster could be so over-reached by an inter- 
ested party such as Governor Simpson was; well 
knowing as he did, that he was the chief of the 
greatest monopoly existing upon either conti- 
nent — the Hudson Bay Company. All Dr. 
Whitman demanded was that if it were true, as 
asserted by Mr. Webster himself, in his instruc- 
tions to Edward Everett in 1840, then Minister 
to England, that "The ownership of Oregon is 
very likely to follow the greater settlement and 
larger amount of population;" then "All I ask is 
that you won't barter away Oregon, or allow 
English interference until I can lead a band of 
stalwart American settlers across the plains: 
For this I will try to do." 

President Tyler promptly and positively 
stated, "Dr. Whitman, your long ride and frozen 
limbs speak for your courage and patriotism; 
your missionary credentials are good vouchers 
for your character." And he promptly granted 
his request. Such promise was all that Whit- 
man required. He firmly believed, as all the 
pioneers of Oregon at that time believed, that 
the treaty of 1818, while not saying in direct 
terms that the nationality settling the country 
should hold it, yet that that was the real mean- 
ing. Both countries claimed the territory, and 
England with the smallest rightful claim had, 
through the Hudson Bay Company, been the 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 131 

supreme autocratic ruler for a full third of g 
century. 

More than half a dozen fur companies, 
attracted to Oregon by the wealth flowing into 
the coffers of the English company, had at^ 
tempted, as we have before shown, to open up 
business on what they claimed was American 
soil ; but, in every instance, they were starved 
out or bought out by the English company. The 
Indians obeyed its orders, and even the American 
Missionaries settled in just the localities they 
were ordered to by the English monopoly. In 
another connection we have more fully explained 
this treaty of 1818, but, suffice it to say, these 
conditions led Whitman to believe that the only 
hope of saving Oregon was in American immi- 
gration. It was for this that he plead with 
President Tyler and Secretary Webster and the 
members of Congress he met. 

From the President he went to the Hon 
James M. Porter, Secretary of War, and by him 
was received with the greatest kindness, and he 
eagerly heard the whole story. He promised 
Dr. Whitman all the aid in his power in his 
scheme of immigration. He promised that 
Captain Fremont, with a company of troops, 
should act as escort to the caravan which 
Whitman was positive he pould organize upon 
the frontier. The Secretary of War also inquired 
in what way he and the Government could aid 



132 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

the pioneers in the new country, and asked Dr. 
Whitman, at his leisure, to write out his views, 
and forward them to him. Dr. Whitman did 
this, and the State Historical Society of Oregon 
did excellent service, recently, in publishing 
Whitman's proposed " Oregon Organization," 
found among the official papers of the War 
Department, a copy of which will be found in the 
appendix of this volume. 

In a Senate document, December 31st, viz., 
the 41st Cong., February 9th, 1871, we read : 
" There is no doubt but that the arrival of Dr. 
Whitman, in 1843, was opportune. The Presi- 
dent was satisfied that the territory was worth 
the effort to win it. The delay incident to a 
transfer of negotiations to London was fortunate, 
for there is reason to believe that if former nego- 
tiations had been renewed in Washington, and 
that, for the sake of a settlement of the pro- 
tracted controversy and the only remaining un- 
adjudicated cause of difference between the two 
Governments, the offer had been renewed of the 
49th parallel to the Columbia and thence down 
the river to the Pacific Ocean, it would have been 
accepted. The visit of Whitman committed the 
President against any such action." This is a 
clear statement, summarizing the great historic 
event, and forever silencing effectually the slan- 
derous tongues that have, in modern times, 
attempted to deprive the old Hero of his great 
and deserving tribute. 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 133 

We will do Secretary Webster the justice to 
say here, that in his later years, he justly 
acknowledged the obligations of the nation to 
Dr. Whitman. In the New York Independent, 
for January, 1870, it is stated: "A personal 
friend of Mr. Webster, a legal gentleman, and 
with whom he conversed on the subject several 
times, remarked to the writer of this article : 'It 
is safe to assert that our country owes it to Dr. 
Whitman and his associate Missionaries that all 
the territory west of the Rocky Mountains and 
south as far as the Columbia river, is not now 
owned by England and held by the Hudson 
Bay Company.' " 

Having transacted his business and succeeded 
even beyond his expectations, Whitman hurried 
to Boston to report to the headquarters of the 
American Board. His enemies have often made 
sport over their version of his " cool reception 
by the American Board." If there was a severe 
reprimand, as reported, both the Officers of the 
Board and Dr. Whitman failed to make record 
of it. But enough of the facts leaked out in the 
years after to show that it was not altogether a 
harmonious meeting. It is not to be wondered at. 

The American Board was a religious organ- 
ization working under fixed rules, and expected 
every member in every field to obey those 
rules. But here was a man, whose salary had 
been paid by the Board for special work, away 



134 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

from his field of labor without the consent from 
headquarters. It is not at all unlikely that he 
was severely reprimanded. The Officers of the 
American Board had no reason to know, as 
Christian people can see now, that Whitman was 
an inspired man, and a man about his Father's 
business. It is even reported, but not vouched 
for, that they ordered him to promptly repair to 
his post of duty, and dismissed him with his 
pockets so empty, that, when starting upon his 
ever-memorable return journey across the plains, 
" He had but money enough to buy only a single 
ham for his supplies." 

One of his old associates who had frequent 
conferences with Whitman — Dr. Gray — -says: 
" Instead of being treated by the American Board 
as his labors justly deserved, he met the cold, 
calculating rebuke for unreasonable expenses, 
and for dangers incurred without orders or 
instructions or permission from headquarters. 
Thus, for economical, prudential reasons, the 
Board received him coldly, and rebuked him for 
his presence before them, causing a chill in his 
warm and generous heart, and a sense of 
unmerited rebuke from those who should have 
been most willing to listen to all his statements, 
and been most cordial and ready to sustain him 
in his herculean labors." We leave intelligent 
readers to answer for themselves, whether this 
attitude of this great and influential and excel- 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 135 

lent organization has not been, in a measure, 
responsible for the neglect of this Hero, who 
served it and the Christian world with all faith- 
fulness and honesty, until he and his noble wife 
dropped into their martyr graves ? If they say 
yea, we raise the question whether the time has 
not been reached to make amends ? 

Dr. Barrows says, in his "Oregon and the 
Struggle for Possession," "It should be said in 
apology for both parties at this late day that, at 
that time, the Oregon Mission and its managing 
Board were widely asunder geographically, and 
as widely separated in knowledge of the condi- 
tion of affairs." Dr. Whitman seems to have as- 
sumed that his seven years' residence on the 
Northwest Coast would gain him a trustful hear- 
ing. But his knowledge gave him the disadvan- 
tage of a position and plans too advanced — not 
an uncommon mishap to eminent leaders. As 
said by Coleridge of Milton, "He strode so far 
before his contemporaries as to dwarf himself by 
the distance." 

He adds that: 

" Years after only, A t was discovered by one 
of the officers of the American Board," that " It 
was not simply an American question then set- 
tled, but at the same time a Protestant question." 
He also refers to a recent work, " The Ely Vol- 
ume," in which is discussed the question, "In- 
stances where the direct influence of missionaries 



136 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

has controlled and hopefully shaped the destinies 
of communities and states," and illustrates by 
saying, " Perhaps no event in the history of mis- 
sions will better illustrate this than the way in 
which Oregon and our whole Northwest Pacific 
Coast was saved to the United States." 

This covered directly the Whitman idea. It 
was, as he before stated, a union of banners. 
The banner of the cross, and the banner of the 
country he loved. It took the spirit and love of 
both to sustain a man and to enable him to 
undergo the hardships and dangers and discour- 
agements that he met, from the beginning to 
the end. 

From Boston, with an aching heart, and yet 
doubtless serene over an accomplished duty, 
which he had faith to believe time would reveal 
in its real light, Dr. Whitman passed on to make 
a flying visit to his own and his wife's relations. 
From letters of Mrs. Whitman, it is easy to see 
that her prophecy was true; " He would be too 
full of his great work on hand, to tell much of 
the home in Oregon." His visit was hurried 
over and seemed more the necessity of a great 
duty than a pleasure. 

But the Doctor's mind was westward. He had 
learned from General Lovejoy that already 
there was gathering upon the frontier a goodly 
number of immigrants and the prospect was ex- 
cellent for a large caravan. In the absence of 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 137 

Dr. Whitman, General Lovejoy had neglected 
no opportunity to publish far and wide that Dr. 
Whitman and himself would, early in the Spring, 
pilot across the plains to Oregon, a body of im- 
migrants. A rendezvous was appointed, not far 
from where Kansas City now stands, at the 
little town of Weston. But they were in various 
camps at Fort Leavenworth and other points, 
waiting both for their guide and for the growing 
spring grass — a necessity for the emigrant. 

Certain modern historians have undertaken 
to rob Whitman of his great services in 1843, by 
gathering affidavits of people who emigrated to 
Oregon in that year, declaring, " We never saw 
Marcus Whitman," and " We were not persuaded 
to immigrate to Oregon by him," etc. Doubt- 
less there were such upon the wide plains, scat- 
tered as they may have been, hundreds of miles 
apart. But it is just as certain that the large im- 
migration to Oregon that year was incited by the 
movements of Whitman and Lovejoy, as any 
fact could be. There is no other method of ex- 
plaining it. That he directly influenced every 
immigrant of that year, no one has claimed. 

True, old Elijah White had paved the way, 
the year before, by leading in the first large band 
of agriculturist settlers; but men of families, un- 
dertaking a two thousand mile journey, with their 
families and their stock, were certainly desirous 
of an experienced guide. They may, as some of 



138 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

them say, never have met Whitman. He was 
not one of the free and easy kind that made him- 
self popular with the masses. 

Then besides all that, fifty years ago plains 
life was an odd life. I have journeyed with men 
for weeks, and even after months of acquaint- 
ance have not known their names, except that of 
Buckeye, Sucker, Missouri, Cass County Bill, 
Bob, etc. Little bands would travel by them- 
selves for days and weeks and then, under the 
sense of danger that would be passed along the 
line, and for defense against depredations of 
some dangerous tribe of Indians, they would 
gather into larger bands soon again to fall apart. 
Some of these would often follow many days 
behind the head of the column, but always have 
the benefit of its guidance. 

That year grass was late, and they did not 
get fully under way until the first week in June. 
Whitman remained behind and did not over- 
take the advance of the column until it reached 
the Platte River. He knew the way, he had 
three times been over it. He was ahead ar- 
ranging for camping places for those in his im- 
mediate company, or in the rear looking after 
the sick and discouraged. If some failed to 
know him by name, there were many who did, 
and all shared in all the knowledge of the coun- 
try and road which he, better than any other, 
knew. 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 139 

In answer to historical critics of modern 
times we quote Dr. H. H. Spalding, who says, in 
speaking of the immigration of 1843: 

"And through that whole summer Dr. Whit- 
man was everywhere present; the ministering 
angel to the sick, helping the weary, encouraging 
the wavering, cheering the tired mothers, setting 
broken bones and mending wagons. He was in 
the front, in the center and in the rear. He 
was in the river hunting out fords through the 
quicksand; in the desert places looking for 
water and grass; among the mountains hunting 
for passes, never b'efore trodden by white men; 
at noontide and at midnight he was on the ale t 
as if the whole line was his own family, and as 
if all the flocks and herds were his own. For 
all this he neither asked nor expected a dollar 
from any source, and especially did he feel re- 
paid at the end, when, standing at his mission 
home, hundreds of his fellow pilgrims took him 
by the hand and thanked him with tears in 
their eyes for all that he had done." 

The head of the column arrived at Fort Hall 
and there waited for the stragglers to come up. 
Dr. Whitman knew that here he would meet 
Captain Johnny Grant, and the old story, "You 
can't take a wagon into Oregon," would be 
dinned into the ears of the head of every family. 
He had heard it over and over again six years 
before. Fort Hall was thirteen hundred and 
twenty-three miles from the Missouri River at 



140 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

Kansas City. Here the Doctor expected trouble 
and found it. Johnny Grant was at Fort Hall to 
make trouble and discourage immigration. He 
was working under the pay of the Fur Company 
and earned his money. The Fur Company did 
not desire farmers in settlements in Oregon. 

Captain Grant at once began to tell them 
the terrors of the mountain journey and the im- 
possibility of hauling their wagons further. 
Then he showed them, to prove it, a corral full 
of fine wagons, with agricultural tools, and thou- 
sands of things greatly needed in Oregon, that 
immigrants had been forced to leave when they 
took to their pack saddles. The men were 
ready, as had been others before, to give up and 
sacrifice the comforts of their families and rob 
themselves at the command of the oily advo- 
cate. 

But here comes Whitman. Johnny Grant 
knows he now has his master. Dr. Whitman 
says: "Men, I have guided you thus far in 
safety. Believe nothing you hear about not be- 
ing able to get your wagons through; every one 
of you stick to your wagons and your goods. 
They will be invaluable to you when you reach 
the end of your journey. I took a wagon through 
to Oregon six years ago." (Again we see the 
historic wagon.) The men believed him. They 
refused to obey Captain Grant's touching ap- 
peal and almost a command to leave their 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 141 

wagons behind. Never did an order, than the 
one Whitman made, add more to the comfort 
and actual value of a band of travellers. 

One of a former company tells of a packing 
experience, after submitting to Captain Grant's 
orders. He says: "There were lively times 
around old Fort Hall when the patient old oxen 
and mules were taken from the wagons to be 
left behind and the loads of bedding, pots and 
pans were tied on to their backs. They were 
unused to such methods. There would first be a 
shying, then a fright and a stampede, and bel- 
lowing oxen and braying mules and the air 
would be full of flying kettles and camp fixtures, 
while women and children crying and the men 
swearing, made up a picture to live in the 
memory." 

No one better than Whitman knew the toil 
and danger attending the last six hundred miles 
of the journey to Oregon. Colonel George B. 
Curry, in an address before the pioneer Society 
of Oregon in 1887, gives a graphic sketch, 
wonderfully realistic, of the immigrant train in 
1853. He says: "From the South Pass the 
nature of our journeying changed, and assumed 
the character of a retreat, a disastrous, ruinous 
retreat. Oxen and horses began to perish in 
large numbers; often falling dead in their yokes 
in the road. The heat-dried wagon, striking on 
the rocks or banks would fall to pieces. As the 






142 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

beasts of burden grew weaker, and the wagon 
more rickety, teams began to be doubled and 
wagons abandoned. The approaching storms of 
autumn, which, on the high mountains at the last 
end of our journey, meant impassable snow, admit- 
ted of no delay. Whatever of strength remained 
of the jaded cattle must be forced out. Every 
thing of weight not absolutely necessary must 
be abandoned." 

"There was no time to pause and recruit the 
hungry stock, nor dare we allow them much free- 
dom to hunt the withered herbage, for a maraud- 
ing enemy hung upon the rear, hovering on 
either. flank, and skulked in ambuscade in the 
front, the horizon was a panorama of mountains, 
the grandest and most desolate on the continent. 
The road was strewn with dead cattle, aban- 
doned wagons, discarded cooking utensils, ox- 
yokes, harness, chairs, mess chests, log chains, 
books, heirlooms, and family •' keepsakes. The 
inexorable surroundings of the struggling mass 
permitted no hesitation or sentiment." 

"The failing strength of the team was a 
demand that must be complied with. Clothing 
not absolutely required at present was left on 
the bare rocks of the rugged canyons. Wagons 
were coupled shorter that a few extra pounds 
might be saved from the wagon beds. One set 
of wheels was left and a cart constructed. Men, 
women and children walked beside the enfeebled 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 143 

teams, ready to give an assisting push up a 
steep pitch." 

"The fierce summer's heat beat upon this 
slow west rolling column. The herbage was dry 
and crisp, the rivulets had become but lines in 
the burning sand; the sun glared from a sky of 
brass; the stony mountain sides glared with the 
garnered heat of a cloudless Summer. The 
dusky brambles of the scraggy sage brush 
seemed to catch the fiery rays of heat and 
shiver them into choking dust, that rose like a 
tormenting plague and hung like a demon of 
destruction over the panting oxen and thirsty 
people." 

"Thus day after day, for weeks and months, 
the slow but urgent retreat continued, each day 
demanding fresh sacrifices. An ox or a horse 
would fall, brave men would lift the useless yoke 
from hislimp and lifeless neck in silence. If there 
was another to take his place he was brought 
from the loose band, yoked up and the journey 
resumed. When the stock of oxen became 
exhausted, cows were brought under the yoke, 
other wagons left, and the lessening store once 
more inspected; if possible, another pound 
would be dispensed with." 

"Deeper and deeper into the flinty moun- 
tains the forlorn mass drives its weary way. 
Each morning the weakened team has to com- 
mence a struggle with yet greater difficulties. It 



144 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

is plain the journey will not be completed within 
the anticipated time, and the dread of hunger 
joins the ranks of the tormentors. The stench 
of carrion fills the air in many places; a watering 
place is reached to find the putrid carcass of a 
dead animal in the spring. The Indians hover 
in the rear, impatiently awaiting for the train to 
move on that the abandoned trinkets may be 
gathered up. Whether these are gathering 
strength for a general attack we cannot tell. 
There is but one thing to do — press on. The 
retreat cannot hasten into rout, for the dis- 
tance to safety is too great. Slower and slower 
is daily progress." 

"I do not pretend to be versed in all the hor- 
rors that have made men groan on earth, but I 
have followed the " Flight of Tartar Tribes," un- 
der the focal light of DeQuincy's genius, the re- 
treat of the ten thousand under Xenophon, but 
as far as I am able to judge, in heroism, endur- 
ance, patience and suffering, the annual retreat 
of immigrants from the Black Hills to the 
Dalles surpasses either. The theater of their 
sufferings and success, for scenic grandeur has 
no superior." 

"The patient endurance of these men and wo- 
men for sublime pathos may challenge the 
world. Men were impoverished and women re- 
duced to beggary and absolute want, and no 
weakling's murmur of complaint escaped their 




REV. H. H. SPALDING. 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 145 

lips. It is true, when women saw their patient 
oxen or faithful horses fall by the roadside and 
die, they wept piteously, and men stood in all the 
"silent manliness of grief" in the camp of their 
desolation, for the immigrants were men and 
women with hearts to feel and tears to flow." 

This it will be observed, was a train upon 
the road ten years later than Dr. Whitman's 
memorable journey. He was a wise guide, and 
his train met with fewer disasters. The Hon. S. 
A. Clarke in his address tells how Whitman 
moved his train across Snake River. 

He says: "When the immigrants reached 
the Snake, Dr. Whitman proceeded to fasten 
wagons together in one long string, the strong- 
est in the lead. As soon as the teams were in 
position, Dr. Whitman tied a rope around his 
waist and starting his horse into the current, 
swam over. He called to others to follow him, 
and when they had force enough to pull at the 
rope, the lead team was started in and all were 
drawn over in safety. As soon as the leading 
teams were able to get foot hold on the bot- 
tom, all was safe; as they, aided by the strong 
arms of the men pulling at the rope, pulled the 
weaker ones along." 

The Snake River at the flood is divided into 
three rivers by islands, the last stream on the 
Oregon side is a deep and rapid current, and 
fully half a mile wide. To get so many wagons, 

10 



146 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

pulled by jaded teams, and all the thousand men, 
women and children, and the loose stock across 
in safety, showed wise generalship. 

We here copy "A day with the Cow Column 
in 1843," by the Hon. Jesse Applegate, a late 
honored citizen of Oregon, who was one of Dr. 
Whitman's company in 1843. It * s a clear 
graphic description of a sample day's journey on 
the famous trip, and was an address published 
in the transactions of the Pioneer Oregon Asso- 
ciation in 1876. 

The migration of a large body of men, women 
and children, across the Continent to Oregon, 
was, in the year 1843, strictly an experiment, not 
only in respect to the numbers, but to the outfit 
of the migrating party. 

Before that date, two or three missionaries 
had performed the journey on horse-back, driv- 
ing a few cows with them. Three or four wagons 
drawn by oxen had reached Fort Hall on Snake 
River, but it was the honest opinion of most of 
those who had traveled the route down Snake 
River, that no large number of cattle could be 
suosisted on its scanty pasturage, or wagons 
taken over a route so rugged and mountainous. 

The emigrants were also assured that the 
Sioux would be much opposed to the passage of 
so large a body through their country, and would 
probably resist it on account of the emigrants 
destroying and frightening away the buffaloes, 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 147 

which were then diminishing in numbers. The 
migrating body numbered over one thou- 
sand souls, with about one hundred and twenty 
wagons, drawn by ox teams, averaging about six 
yokes to the team, and several thousand loose 
horses and cattle. 

The emigrants first organized and attempted 
to travel in one body, but it was soon found that 
no progress could be made with a body so cum- 
brous, and as yet, so averse to all discipline. And 
at the crossing of the "Big Blue," it divided into 
two columns, which traveled in supporting dis- 
tance of each other as far as Independence Rock, 
on the Sweet River. 

From this point, all danger from Indians be- 
ing over, the emigrants separated into small 
parties better suited to the narrow mountain 
paths and small pastures in their front. 

Before the division on the Blue River, there was 
some just cause for discontent in respect to loose 
cattle. Some of the emigrants had only their 
teams, while others had large herds in addition, 
which must share the pastures and be driven by 
the whole body. 

This discontent had its effect in the division 
on the Blue, those not encumbered with or hav- 
ing but few loose cattle attached themselves to 
the light column, those having more than four or 
five cows had of necessity to join the heavy or 
cow column. Hence, the cow column, being 



148 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

much larger tnan the other and encumbered 
with its large herds, had to use greater exertion 
and observe a more rigid discipline, to keep pace 
with the more agile consort. 

It is with the cow or more clumsy column that 
I propose to journey with the reader for a single 
day. 

It is four o'clock a. m., the sentinels on duty 
have discharged their rifles, the signal that the 
hours of sleep are over; and every wagon or 
tent is pouring forth its night tenants, and slow 
kindling smokes begin to rise and float away on 
the morning air. Sixty men start from the cor- 
ral, spreading as they make through the vast 
herd of cattle and horses that form a semi-circle 
around the encampment, the most distant, per- 
haps, two miles away. 

The herders pass to the extreme verge, and 
carefully examine for trails beyond, to see that 
none of the animals have been stolen or strayed 
during the night. This morning no trails lead 
beyond the outside animals in sight, and by five 
o'clock the herders begin to contract the great 
moving circle, and the well-trained animals move 
slowly toward camp, clipping here and there a 
thistle or tempting bunch of grass on the way. 

In about an hour 5,000 animals are close up 
to the encampment, and the teamsters are busy 
selecting their teams, and driving them inside 
the "corral" to be yoked. The corral is a 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 140 

circle one hundred yards deep, formed with 
wagons connected strongly with each other, the 
wagon in the rear being connected with the 
wagon in front by its tongue and ox chains. It 
is a strong barrier that the most vicious ox can- 
not break, and in case of an attack by the Sioux, 
would be no contemptible entrenchment. 

From six to seven o'clock is a busy time ; 
breakfast to be eaten, the tents struck, the 
wagons loaded, and the teams yoked and brought 
up in readiness to be attached to their respective 
wagons. All know, when at seven o'clock the 
signal to march sounds, that those not ready to 
take their proper places in the line of march 
must fall into the dusty rear for the day. 

There are sixty wagons. They have been 
divided into sixteen divisions, or platoons of 
four wagons each, and each platoon is entitled to 
lead in its turn. The leading platoon of to-day 
will be the rear one to-morrow, and will bring up 
the rear, unless some teamster, through indo- 
lence or negligence, has lost his place in the line, 
and is condemned to that uncomfortable post. 
It is within ten minutes of seven ; the corral, but 
now a strong barricade, is everywhere broken, 
the teams being attached to the wagons. The 
women and children have taken their places in 
them. The pilot (a borderer who has passed 
his life on the verge of civilization, and has been 
chosen to the post of leader from his knowledge 



150 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

of the savage and his experience in travel 
through roadless wastes) stands ready, in the 
midst of his pioneers and aides, to mount and 
lead the way. 

Ten or fifteen young men, not to lead to-day, 
form another cluster. They are ready to start on 
a buffalo hunt, are well mounted and well armed, 
as they need to be, for the unfriendly Sioux 
have driven the buffalo out of the Platte, and the 
hunters must ride fifteen or twenty miles to 
reach them. The cow-drivers are hastening, as 
they get ready, to the rear of their charge, to 
collect and prepare them for the day's march. 

It is on the stroke of seven ; the rushing to 
and fro, the cracking of whips, the loud command 
to oxen, and what seemed to be the inextricable 
confusion of the last ten minutes has ceased. 
Fortunately, every one has been found, and 
every teamster is at his post. The clear notes of 
a trumpet sound in the front ; the pilot and his 
guards mount their horses ; the leading division 
of wagons move out of the encampment and take 
up the line of march ; the rest fall into their 
places with the precision of clock-work, until the 
post, so lately full of life, sinks back into that 
solitude that seems to reign over the broad plain 
and rushing river, as the caravan draws its lazy 
length toward the distant El Dorado. 

It is with the hunters we will briskly canter 
towards the bold but smootk and grassy bluffs 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 151 

that bound the broad valley, for we are not yet 
in sight of the grander, but less beautiful, scenery 
(of the Chimney Rock, Court House, and other 
bluffs so nearly resembling giant castles and 
palaces) made by the passage of the Platte through 
the Highlands near Laramie. We have been 
traveling briskly for more than an hour. We 
have reached the top of the bluff, and now have 
turned to view the wonderful panorama spread 
before us. 

To those who have not been on the Platte, 
my powers of description are wholly inade- 
quate to convey an idea of the vast extent and 
grandeur of the picture, and the rare beauty and 
distinctness of its detail. No haze or fog ob- 
scures objects in the pure and transparent 
atmosphere of this lofty region. To those accus- 
tomed to only the murky air of the sea-board, no 
correct judgment of distance can be formed by 
sight, and objects which they think they can 
reach in a two hours' walk, may be a day's travel 
away; and though the evening air is a better 
conductor of sound, on the high plain during the 
day the report of the loudest rifle sounds little 
louder than the bursting of a cap; and while the 
report can be heard but a few hundred yards, the 
smoke of the discharge may be seen for miles. 

So extended is the view from the bluff on 
which the hunters stand, that the broad river, 
glowing under the morning sun like a sheet of 



152 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

silver, and the broader emerald valley that bor- 
ders it, stretch away in the distance until they 
narrow at almost two points in the horizon, and 
when first seen, the vast pile of the Wind River 
mountains, though hundreds of miles away, 
looks clear and distinct as a white cottage on 
the plain. 

We are full six miles away from the line of 
march; though everything is dwarfed by dis- 
tance, it is seen distinctly. The caravan has 
been about two hours in motion, and is now ex- 
tended as widely as a prudent regard for safety 
will permit. First, near the bank of the shining 
river, is a company of horsemen; they seemed to 
have found an obstruction, for the main body 
has halted, while three or four ride rapidly along 
the bank of a creek or slough. They are hunt- 
ing a favorable crossing for the wagons; while 
we look they have succeeded; it has apparently 
required no work to make it passable, while all 
but one of the party have passed on, and he has 
raised a flag, no doubt a signal to the wagons to 
steer their course to where he stands. 

The leading teamster sees him, though he is 
yet two miles off, and steers his course directly 
towards him, all the wagons following in his 
track. They (the wagons) form a line three- 
quarters of a mile in length; some of the team- 
sters ride upon the front of their wagons, some 
march beeide their teams; scattered along the 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 153 

line companies of women and children are tak- 
ing exercise on foot; they gather bouquets of rare 
and beautiful flowers that line the way; near 
them stalks a stately greyhound or an Irish 
wolf dog, apparently proud of keeping watch 
and ward over his master's wife and children. 

Next comes a band of horses; two or three 
men or boys follow them, the docile and saga- 
cious animals scarcely needing this attention, for 
they have learned to follow in the rear of the 
wagons, and know that at noon they will be al- 
lowed to graze and rest. Their knowledge of 
time seems as accurate as of the place they are 
to occupy in the line, and even a full-blown 
thistle will scarce tempt them to straggle or halt 
until the dinner hour is arrived. 

Not so with the large herd of horned beasts 
that bring up the rear; lazy, selfish and unsocial, it 
has been a task to get them in motion, the strong 
always ready to domineer over the weak, halt 
in the front and forbid the weaker to pass them. 
They seem to move only in fear of the driver's 
whip; though in the morning full to repletion, 
they have not been driven an hour, before their 
hunger and thirst seem to indicate a fast of days' 
duration. Through all the day long their greed 
is never sated nor their thirst quenched, nor is 
there a moment of relaxation of the tedious and 
vexatious labors of their drivers, although to all 
others the march furnishes some reason of relax- 



154 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

ation or enjoyment. For the cow-drivers, there 
is none. 

But from the stand-point of the hunters the 
vexations are not apparent; the crack of whip 
and loud objurgations are lost in the distance. 
Nothing of the moving panorama, smooth and 
orderly as it appears, has more attraction for the 
eye than that vast square column in which all 
colors are mingled, moving here slowly and there 
briskly, as impelled by horsemen riding furiously 
in front and rear. 

But the picture, in its grandeur, its wonderful 
mingling of. colors and distinctness of detail, is 
forgotten in contemplation of the singular peo- 
ple who give it life and animation. No other 
race of men, with the means at their command, 
would undertake so great a journey; none save 
these could successfully perform it, with no pre- 
vious preparation, relying only on the fertility of 
their invention to devise the means to overcome 
each danger and difficulty as it arose. 

They have undertaken to perform with slow- 
moving oxen, a journey of two thousand miles. 
The way lies over trackless wastes, wide and 
deep rivers, rugged and lofty mountains, and it 
is beset with hostile savages. Yet, whether it 
were a deep river with no tree upon its banks, a 
rugged defile where even a loose horse could not 
pass, a hill too steep for him to climb, or a threat- 
ened attack of an enemy, they are always found 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 155 

ready and equal to the occasion, and always con- 
querors. May we not call them men of destiny? 
They are people changed in no essential particu- 
lars from their ancestors, who have followed 
closely on the footsteps of the receding savage, 
from the Atlantic sea-board to the great valley 
of the Mississippi. 

But while we have been gazing at the picture 
in the valley, the hunters have been examining 
the high plain in the other direction. Some 
dark moving objects have been discovered in the 
distance, and all are closely watching them to 
discover what they are, for in the atmosphere of 
the plains, a flock of crows marching miles away, 
or a band of buffaloes or Indians at ten times 
the distance, look alike, and many ludicrous mis- 
takes occur. But these are buffaloes, for two 
have struck their heads together, and are, alter- 
nately pushing each other back. The hunters 
mount and away in pursuit, and I, a poor cow- 
driver, must hurry back to my daily toil, and 
take a scolding from my fellow-herders for so 
long playing truant. 

The pilot, by measuring the ground and tim- 
ing the speed of the wagons and the walk of his 
horses, has determined the rate of each, so as to 
enable him to select the nooning place, as nearly 
as the requisite grass and water can be had at 
the end of five hours' travel of the wagons. To- 
day, the ground being favorable, little time has 



156 how marcls whitman saved Oregon'. 

been lost in preparing the road, so that he and 
his pioneers are at the nooning place an hour in 
advance of the wagons, which time is spent in 
preparing convenient watering places for the 
animals, and digging little wells near the bank 
of the Platte. 

As the teams are not unyoked, but simply 
turned loose from their wagons, a corral is not 
formed at noon, but the wagons are drawn up in 
columns, four abreast, the leading wagon of each 
platoon> on the left — -the platoons being formed 
with that view. This brings friends together at 
noon as well as at night. 

To-day, an extra session of the Council is be- 
ing held, to settle a dispute that does not admit 
of delay, between a proprietor and a young man 
who has undertaken to do a man's service on 
the journey for bed and board. Many such en- 
gagements exist, and much interest is taken in 
the manner this high court, from which there 
is no appeal, will define the rights of each party 
in- such engagements. 

The Council was a high court in a most ex- 
alted sense. It was a Senate, composed of the 
ablest and most respected fathers of the emigra- 
tion. It exercised both legislative and judicial 
powers, and its laws and decisions proved it 
equal and worthy the high trust reposed in it. 
Its sessions were usually held on days when the 
caravan was not moving. It first took the state 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 157 

of the little commonwealth into consideration; 
revised or repealed rules defective or obsolete, 
and enacted such others as the exigenciesseemed 
to require. The common weal being cared for, 
it next resolved itself into a court to hear and 
settle private disputes and grievances. 

The offender and the aggrieved appeared be- 
fore it; witnesses were examined and the parties 
were heard by themselves and sometimes by 
counsel. The judges thus being made fully ac- 
quainted with the case, and being in no way 
influenced or cramped by technicalities, decided 
all cases according to their merits. There was 
but little use for lawyers before this court, for no 
plea was entertained which was calculated to 
hinder or defeat the ends of justice. 

Many of these Judges have since won honors 
in higher spheres. They have aided to estab- 
lish on the broad basis of right and universal 
liberty, two of the pillars of our Great Republic 
in the Occident. Some of the young men who 
appeared before them as advocates, have them- 
selves sat upon the highest judicial tribunal, 
commanded armies, been Governors of States, 
and taken high positions in the Senate of the 
Nation. 

It is now one o'clock; the bugle has sounded, 
and the caravan has resumed its westward jour- 
ney. It is in the same order, but the evening is 
far less animated than the morning march; a 



158 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

drowsiness has fallen apparently on man and 
beast; teamsters drop asleep on their perches 
and even when walking by their teams, and the 
words of command aie now addressed to the 
slowly creeping oxen in the softened tenor of a 
woman or the piping treble of children, while 
the snores of teamsters make a droning accom- 
paniment. 

But a little incident breaks the monotony of 
the march. An emigrant's wife, whose state of 
health has caused Dr. Whitman to travel near 
the wagon for the day, is now taken with violent 
illness. The Doctor has had the wagon driven 
out of the line, a tent pitched and a fire kindled. 
Many conjectures are hazarded in regard to this 
mysterious proceeding, and as to why this lone 
wagon is to be left behind. 

And we too must leave it, hasten to the front 
and note the proceedings, for the sun is now 
getting low in the West, and at length the pains- 
taking pilot is standing ready to conduct the 
train in the circle which he had previously 
measured and marked out, which is to form the 
invariable fortification for the night. 

The leading wagons follow him so nearly 
round the circle, that but a wagon lengthsepar- 
ates them. Each wagon follows in its track, the 
rear closing on the front until its tongue and 
ox-chains will perfectly reach from one to the 
other, and so accurate the measurement, and 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 159 

perfect the practice, that the hindmost wagon of 
the train always precisely closes the gateway. 
As each wagon is brought into position, it is 
dropped from its team, (the teams being inside 
the circle) the team unyoked, and the yokes 
and chains are used to connect the wagon 
strongly with that in its front. 

Within ten minutes from the time the lead- 
ing wagon halted the barricade is formed, the 
teams unyoked and driven out to pasture. 
Every one is busy preparing fires of buffalo 
chips to cook the evening meal, pitching tents 
and otherwise preparing for the night. 

There are anxious watchers for the absent 
wagon, for there are many matrons who may be 
afflicted like its inmate before the journey is 
over, and they fear the strange and startling 
practice of this Oregon doctor will be danger- 
ous. But as the sun goes down, the absent 
wagon rolls into camp, the bright, speaking face 
and cheery look of the Doctor, who rides in 
advance, declare without words that all is well, 
and that both mother and child are comfortable. 

I would fain now and here pay a passing trib- 
ute to that noble and devoted man, Dr. Whitman. 
I will obtrude no other name upon the reader, 
nor would I his, were he of our party or even 
living, but his stay with us was transient, though 
the good he did was permanent, and he has 
long since died at his post. 



160 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

From the time he joined us on the Platte, un- 
til he left us at Fort Hall, his great experience 
and indomitable energy was of priceless value 
to the migrating column. His constant advice, 
which we knew was based upon a knowledge of 
the road before us, was "travel, travel, travel — 
nothing else will take you to the end of your 
journey; nothing is wise that does not help you 
along; nothing is good for you that causes a mo- 
ment's delay.' 

His great authority as a physician and com- 
plete success in the case above referred to, saved 
us many prolonged and perhaps ruinous delays 
from similar causes, and it is no disparagement 
to others to say that to no other individual are 
the immigrants of 1843 so much indebted for the 
successful conclusion of their journey, as to Dr. 
Marcus Whitman. 

All able to bear arms in the party had been 
formed into three companies, and each of these 
into four watches; every third night it is the duty 
of one of these companies to keep watch and 
ward over the camp, and it is so arranged that 
each watch takes its turn of guard duty through 
the different watches of the night. Those form- 
ing the first watch to-night, will be second on 
duty, then third and fourth, which brings them 
all through the watches of the night. They be- 
gin at eight o'clock p. m, and end at 4 o'clock 

A. M. 




REV. CUSHING EELLS, D. D. 
Founder of Whitman College. 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 161 

It is not yet eight o'clock when the first 
watch is to be set; the evening meal is just over, 
and the corral now free from the intrusion of 
horses or cattle, groups of children are scattered 
over it. The larger are taking a game of romps ; 
"the wee, toddling things " are being taught that 
great achievement which distinguishes men 
from the lower animals. Before a tent near the 
river, a violin makes lively music and some 
youths and maidens have improvised a dance 
upon the green; in another quarter a flute gives 
its mellow and melancholy notes to the still 
night air, which, as they float away over the quiet 
river, seem a lament for the past rather than for 
a hope of the future. 

It has been a prosperous day; more than 
twenty miles have been accomplished of the 
great journey. The encampment is a good one; 
one of the causes that threatened much future 
delay has just been removed by the skill and 
energy of "that good angel" of the emigrants, 
Dr. Whitman, and it has lifted a load from the 
hearts of the elders. Many of these are assem- 
bled around the good doctor at the tent of the 
pilot (which is his home for the time being), 
and are giving grave attention to his wise and 
energetic counsel. The care-worn Pilot sits 
aloof quietly smoking his pipe, for he knows the 
grave Doctor is "strength in his hands." 

But time passes, the watch is set for the 

II 



162 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

night, the counsel of good men has been broken 
up and each has returned to his own quarters. 
The flute has whispered its last lament to the 
deepening night. The violin is silent and the 
dancers have dispersed. Enamored youths 
have whispered a tender "good-night" in the 
ear of blushing maidens, or stolen a kiss from 
the lips of some future bride; for Cupid, here as 
elsewhere, has been busy bringing together con- 
genial hearts, and among these simple people, 
he alone is consulted in forming the marriage 
tie. Even the Doctor and the Pilot have finished 
their confidential interview and have separated 
for the night. All is hushed and repose from 
the fatigues of the day, save the vigilant guard, 
and the wakeful leader who still has cares upon 
his mind that forbid sleep. 

He hears the ten o'clock relief taking post, 
and the " all well " report of the returned guard ; 
the night deepens, yet he seeks not the needed 
repose. At length a sentinel hurries to him with 
the welcome report that a party is approaching, 
as yet too far away for its character to be deter- 
mined, and he instantly hurries out in the 
direction seen. 

This he does both from inclination and duty, 
for, in times past, the camp has been unnecessarily 
alarmed by timid or inexperienced sentinels, 
causing much confusion and fright amongst 
women and children, and it had been made a 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 163 

rule that all extraordinary incidents of the night 
should be reported directly to the Pilot, who 
alone had authority to call out the military 
strength of the column, or so much of it as was, 
in his judgment, necessary to prevent a stampede 
or repel an enemy. 

To-night he is at no loss to determine that 
the approaching party are our missing hunters, 
and that they have met with success, and he 
only waits until, by some further signal, he can 
know that no ill has happened to them. This is 
not long wanting; he does not even wait their 
arrival, but the last care of the day being re- 
moved and the last duties performed, he, too, 
seeks the rest that will enable him to go through 
the same routine to-morrow. But here I leave 
him, for my task is also done, and, unlike his, it 
is to be repeated no more. 

After passing through such trials and dangers, 
nothing could have been more cheering to these 
tired immigrants than the band of Cayuse and 
Nez Perces Indians, with packed mules loaded 
with supplies, meeting the Doctor upon the 
mountains with a glad welcome. From them he 
learned that in his absence his mill had been 
burned, but the Rev. H. H. Spalding, anticipat- 
ing the needs of the caravan, had furnished flour 
from his mill, and nothing was ever more joy- 
ously received. 

Dr. Whitman also received letters urging 
him to hurry on to his Mission. He selected one 



164 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

of his most trusty Cayuse Indian guides, Istikus, 
and placed the company under his lead. He 
was no longer a necessity for its comfort and 
safety. The most notable event in pioneer his- 
tory is reaching its culmination. That long train 
of canvas-covered wagons moving across the 
plains, those two hundred camp-fires at night, 
with shouts and laughter and singing of children, 
were all new and strange to these solitudes. As 
simple facts in history, to an American they are 
profoundly interesting, but to the thoughtful 
student who views results, they assume propor- 
tions whose grandeur is not easily over-estimated. 

But the little band has come safely across the 
Rockies ; has forded and swum many intervening 
rivers ; the dreary plains, with salaratus dust and 
buffalo gnats, had been left behind, and here 
they stand upon a slope of the farthest western 
range of mountains, with the fertile foot-hills and 
beautiful grass meadows reaching as far away as 
the eye can see. The wagons are well bunched. 
For weeks they have been eager to see the land 
of promise. It is a goodly sight to see, as the}/ 
file down the mountain side, one hundred and 
twenty-five wagons, one thousand head of loose 
stock, cattle, horses and sheep, and about one 
thousand men, women and children, and Oregon 
is saved to the Union. 

Who- did it? 

We leave every thoughtful, honest reader to 
answer the query. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



A BACKWARD LOOK AT RESULTS. 



The reader of history is often moved to ad- 
miration at the dash and courage of some bold 
hero, even when he has failed in the work he 
set out to accomplish. The genius to invent, 
with the courage to prosecute, has often failed in 
reaching the hoped-for results. The pages of 
history of all time are burdened with the plain- 
tive cry, "Oh, for night or Blucher." It is the 
timeliness of great events that mark real genius, 
and the largest wisdom. 

Of Whitman it was a leading characteristic. 
He did the right thing just at the right time. 
His faith was equal to his courage and when his 
duty was made clear to his mind, there was no 
impediment that he would not attempt to over- 
come. Now we are to study the results of his 
heroic ride, and will see how dangerous would 
have been any delay. 

We have noted Webster's letter to the Eng- 



165 



160 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

lish Minister, dated in 1840, in which he said, 
"The ownership of the whole country" (refer- 
ring to Oregon) "will likely follow the greater 
settlement and larger amount of population," 
and this we may say was the common sentiment 
of our early Statesmen, and not peculiar to Mr. 
Webster. But Whitman has started a new train 
of thought and given a new direction to the 
policy of the administration. 

The President believed in the truthful report 
of the Hero with his frozen limbs, who had ridden 
four thousand miles in mid-winter without pay 
or hope of reward, to plead for Oregon. Imme- 
diately upon the close of the conference the 
record shows that Secretary Webster wrote to 
Minister Everett and said, "The Government of 
the United States has never offered any line 
south of forty-nine and never will, and England 
must not expect anything south of the forty- 
ninth degree." 

That is a wonderful change. Upon receipt 
of the news that Dr. Whitman, in June, " Had 
started to Oregon with a great caravan number- 
ing nearly one thousand souls," another letter 
was sent to the English Minister, still more 
pointed and impressive. * 

The President and his Secretary at once be- 
gan to arrange the terms for a treaty with Eng- 
land regarding the boundary line, and negotia- 
tions were speedily begun. It did not look to be 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 167 

a hopeful task when the Ashburton-Webster 
Treaty, just signed in 1842, had been a bone of 
contention for forty-eight years. Still more did 
it look discouraging from the fact that diplomats 
the year before had resolved to leave the Oregon 
boundary out of the case, as it was said, " Other- 
wise it would likely defeat the whole treaty." 

But suddenly new blood had been injected 
into American veins in and about Washington. 
They saw a great fertile country, thirty times as 
large as Massachusetts, which was rightfully 
theirs and yet claimed by a power many thou- 
sand miles separated from it. The National, 
blood was aroused. A great political party, not 
satisfied with Secretary Webster's modest " lati- 
tude of forty-nine degrees" emblazoned on its 
banners, "Oregon and fifty-four forty '•-■: fight." 

The spirit of '76 and 1-8 1 2 seemed to have 
suddenly been aroused throughout the Nation. 
People did not stop to ask, who has done it, or 
how it all happened; but no intelligent or 
thoughtful student of history can doubt how it 
all happened, or who was its author. It was also 
easy to see that it was to be no forty-eight year 
campaign before the question mustbe adjudicated. 

The Hon. Elwood Evans, in a speech in 1871, 
well said: "The arrival of Dr. Whitman in 1843 
was opportune. The President was satisfied the 
territory was worth preserving." He continues, 
"If the offer had been made in the Ashburton 



108 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

Treaty of the forty-ninth parallel to the Columbia 
River, and thence down the Columbia to the Pa- 
cific Ocean, it would have been accepted, but the 
visit of Whitman committed the President 
against any such settlement." 

The offer was not made by English Diplo- 
mats, because they intended to have a much 
larger slice. Captain Johnny Grant and the 
English Hudson Bay officials made their greatest 
blunder in allowing Whitman to make his peril- 
ous Winter ride. They were not prepared for 
the sudden change in American sentiment. In 
any enthusiasm for our Hero, we would not will- 
ingly make any exaggerated claim for his ser- 
vices. Prior to the arrival of Whitman, Presi- 
dent Tyler had shown thoughtful interest in the 
Oregon question, and in his message in 1842 he 
said: "In advance of the acquirement of indi- 
vidual rights to those lands, sound policy dictates 
that every effort should be resorted to by the 
two Governments to settle their respective 
claims." 

Fifteen days before the arrival of Whitman, 
Senator Linn, always a firm friend of Oregon, in 
a resolution called for information "Why Ore- 
gon was not included in the Ashburton-Webster 
Treaty." This resolution passed the Senate, 
but was defeated in the House. Neither the 
President, Senators, or Congressmen had the data 
upon which to base clear, intelligent action, and 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 16U 

Whitman's arrival just when congress was clos- 
ing up its business, gave no opportunity for the 
wider discussion which would have followed 
then and there. It was, however, another evi- 
dence of timeliness, which we wish to keep well 
to the front in all Whitman's work. 

All can see how fortunate it was that the 
Oregon boundary question was not included in 
the Ashburton Treaty in 1842, and that it had 
waited for later adjudication. During the sum- 
mer of 1843 tne people of the entire country had 
heard of the great overland emigration to Ore- 
gon, and on the 8th day of January, 1844, Congress 
was notified that the Whitman immigration to 
Oregon was a grand success, and upon the very 
day of the arrival of this news, a resolution was 
offered in the Senate which called for the instruc- 
tions to our Minister in England and all corre- 
spondence upon the subject. But the conserva- 
tive Senate was not quite ready yet for such a 
move, and the resolution was defeated' by a close 
vote. But two days after a similar resolution 
was passed by the House. 

Urged to do so by Whitman, the ^,ees, 
Lovejoy, Spalding, Eells and others, scores of 
intelligent emigrants flooded their congressmen 
with letters giving glowing descriptions of the 
beauty of the country, the fertility of the land, 
and the mildness and healthfulness of the clim- 
ate. Even Senator Winthrop, who at one time 



170 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

declared that " Neither the West nor the country 
at large had any real interest in retaining Ore- 
gon; that we would not be straitened for 
elbow room in the West for a thousand years," 
was aroused to something of enthusiasm, and 
said in his place in the Senate, " For myself, cer- 
tainly, I believe that 'we have a good title to the 
whole twelve degrees of latitude up to fifty- 
four, forty." 

Senator Benton had long since materially 
changed his views from those he held when he 
had said that "The ridge of the Rocky Moun- 
tains may be named as the convenient, natural 
and everlasting boundary." Fremont, not Whit- 
man, had converted him. Benton was aggres- 
sive and intelligent. In the discussion of 1844, 
he said: "Let the emigrants go on and carry 
their rifles. We want thirty thousand rifles in the 
valley of the Oregon. The war, if it come, will 
not be topical; it will not be confined to Ore- 
gon, but will embrace the possessions of the two 
Powers throughout the Globe." 

In the discussion, which took a wide turn, 
many of the eminent statesmen at that time 
took a part. Prominent among them was Cal- 
houn, Linn, Benton, Choate, Berrien and Rives. 
Many of them tried the most persuasive words 
of peace, yet no one who reads the speeches 
and the proceedings, but will .perceive the won- 
derful changes in public sentiment during a 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 171 

single year. The year 1844 ended with the 
struggle growing every day more intense. The 
English people had awakened to the fact that 
they had to meet the issue and there would not 
be any repetition of the old dallying with the 
Maine boundary. They sent to this country 
Minister Packenham as Minister Plenipotentiary 
to negotiate the treaty. Mr. Buchanan acted 
for the United States. 

It was talk and counter talk. Buchanan was 
one of the leading spirits in the demand for fifty- 
four forty, and his position was well understood 
both by the people of the United States and by 
England. President Tyler, in his final message, 
earnestly recommended the extension of^ the 
United States laws over the Territory of Oregon. 

In this connection it will be remembered that 
Dr. Whitman, only a few months before the 
great massacre, in which he and his noble wife 
lost their lives, rode all the way to Oregon City 
to urge Judge Thornton to go to Washington 
and beg, on the part of the people of Oregon, 
for a " Provisional Government." Judge Thorn- 
ton believed in Dr. Whitman's wisdom, and 
when the Doctor declared that which seemed t?o 
be a prophecy, "Unless this is done, nothing 
will save even my Mission from murder." The 
Judge said: "If Governor Abernethy will fur- 
nish me a letter to the President, I will go." The 
Governor promptly furnished the required letter 



172 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

and Judge Thornton resigned his position as 
Supreme Judge. All know of the fatal events r.t 
the Whitman Mission in less than two months 
after Judge Thornton's departure. 

But the boundary* question lapped over into 
Mr. Polk's administration in 1845 with a promise 
of lively times. President Polk, in December, 
1845, made it the leading question in his mes- 
sage. He covers the whole question in dispute 
and says: "The proposition of compromise 
which has been made and rejected, was by my 
order withdrawn, and our title to the whole of 
Oregon asserted, and, as it is believed, main- 
tained by irrefragable facts and arguments." 
The President recommended that the joint occu- 
pation treaty of 1818-1828 be terminated by the 
stipulated notice, and that the civil and criminal 
laws of the United States be extended over the 
whole of Oregon, and that a line of military 
posts be established along the route from the 
States to the Pacific." 

If the reader will take the pains to read the 
paper which Dr. Whitman by request, sent to the 
Secretary of War in 1843, republished in the 
appendix of this volume, he will find in it just 
the recommendations now two years later made 
by the President. The great misfortune was 
that it was not complied with promptly. War 
upon a grand scale seemed imminent. A lead- 
ing Senator announced that "War may now be 
looked for almost inevitably." 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 173 

The whole tone or public sentiment, in Con- 
gress and out, was that the United States owned 
Oregon, not only up to 49 , but up to 54°-4o' ." It 
was thought that the resolution of notice for the 
termination of the Treaty would cause a declara- 
tion of war. For forty days the question was 
pending before the House and finally passed by 
the strong vote of 163 for to 54 against. In the 
Senate the resolution covered a still wider range 
and a longer time. But little else was thought 
or talked about. Business throughout the land 
was at a stand-still in the suspense, or was 
hurrying to prepare for a great emergency. 
The wisest, coolest-headed Senators still re- 
garded the question at issue open for peaceful 
settlement. They dwelt upon the horrors of a 
war, that would cost the Nation five hundred 
millions in treasure, beside the loss of life. 

Webster, who had been so soundly abused 
for his Ashburton Treaty had held aloof from 
this discussion. But there came a time when he 
could no longer remain silent, and he put him- 
self on the record in a single sentence. "It is 
my opinion that it is not the judgment of this 
Country, or that of the Senate, that the Govern- 
ment of the United States should run the hazard 
of a war for Oregon, by renouncing as no longer 
fit for consideration, the proposition of adjust- 
ment made by the Government thirty years ago, 
and repeated in the face of the world." 



174 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

Calhoun, than whom no Senator was more 
influential, urged continued peaceful methods. 
He said, " A question of greater moment never 
has been presented to Congress." Others 
counseled a continuance of things as they were 
and letting immigration after the bold Whitman 
plan settle it. 

Suffice it here to say that both Nations, after 
the wide discussion and threats, saw war as a 
costly experiment. In the last of April the 
terms of treaty were agreed upon, and on July 
17th, 1846, both Governments had signed a treaty 
fixing the boundary line at 49°. 

Now here again comes in the timeliness of 
Whitman's memorable ride. It had taken every 
day of exciting contest in Congress since that 
event, up to April, 1846, to agree'upon the boun- 
dary and for America to get her Oregon. On 
the 13th day of May, 1846, Congress declared 
war against Mexico, and California was at stake. 
Suppose England could have forseen that event, 
would she not have declared in favor of a longer 
wait ? Who that knows England does not know 
that she would ? With England still holding to 
her rights in Oregon how easy it would have 
been to take sides with Mexico and to have 
helped her hold California. 

But we won not only California and New 
Mexico, but won riches. In the year 1848 gold 
was discovered in California. And now suppose 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 175 

England could have foreseen that, as she would 
have known it had she prolonged the negotia- 
tions, would she ever have signed away any pos- 
sessions like that rolled in gold ? When did the 
great and powerful Kingdom of Great Britain 
ever do anything of the kind ? 

It would not have done for Whitman to 
have waited for next year and warm weather as 
his friends demanded. "I must go," and "now," 
and at this day it is easy to see from the light of 
history how God rules in the minds and hearts 
of men, as he rules Nations. They, as men and 
nations, turn aside from His commands, but a 
man like Marcus Whitman obeys. 

Go still farther. From the time gold was dis- 
covered in California up to the outbreak of the 
War of the Rebellion, nine hundred millions of 
gold were dug from the mines of California and 
Oregon. Where did it go ? The great bulk of 
it went into store-houses and manufactories and 
vaults of the North. The South was sparsely 
represented in California and Oregon in the 
early days. We repeat that when the war broke 
out, the great bulk of the yellow metal was 
behind the Union army. Who don't recognize 
that it was a great power ? even more than that, 
it was a controlling power. The Nation was to 
be tried as never before. Human slavery was 
the prize for which the South contended, while 
human freedom soon asserted itself, despite all 



176 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

opposition as a contending force in the North. 
But the wisest were in doubt as to results. 
They could not see how it was possible that " the 
sum of all villainies" could be obliterated. In 
the East and the North and the West, the boys 
in blue flocked to the standard, and bayonets 
gleamed everywhere. The plow was left in the 
furrow, and the hum of the machine-shop was 
not heard. The fires in the furnaces and forges 
went out, and multitudes were in despair over 
the mighty struggle at hand. The Union might 
have been saved without the wealth of gold of 
California and Oregon ; it might have proved 
victorious, even if the two great loyal States of 
the Pacific had been in the hands of strangers or 
enemies, but they were behind the loyal Union 
army. And the men marched and fought and 
sung — 

" In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea, 
With a glory in his bosom, that transfigures you and me ; 
Ashe died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, 
While God is marching on." 

as they marched, leaving graves upon every 
mountain side and in every valley. Appomatox 
was reached, and lo, the chains dropped from 
the limbs of six million slaves, and " The flag of 
beauty and glory " floated from Lake to Gulf 
and from Ocean to Ocean, in truth as in song — 

" O'er the land of the free, 
And the home of the brave," 




WHITMAN COLLEGE, WALLA WALLA, WASHINGTON. 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 177 

Again, older readers will remember with 
what fear and trembling they opened their morn- 
ing papers for many months, fearing to read that 
England had accorded " belligerent rights " to 
the Confederacy. They will have a vivid recol- 
lection of the eloquent appeals of America's 
greatest orator, Henry Ward Beecher, as he 
plead, as no other man could, the cause of the 
Union in English cities. He was backed up by 
old John Bright, the descendants of Penn, 
Gurney and Wilberforce, and the old-time ene- 
mies of human slavery. But it took them all to 
stem the tide. At one time it even seemed that 
they had won over Gladstone to their interests. 

While the great masses of the English people 
were in sympathy with the Union cause, the 
monied men and commerce sided with the Con- 
federacy : " Cotton was King." They had been 
struck in a tender place — their pockets and bank 
accounts. But suppose England had owned 
Oregon and its great interests, who don't see 
that all the danger would have been multiplied, 
and our interests endangered ? There is in this 
no extravagant claim made that all this was done 
by Marcus Whitman. The Ruler of the Uni- 
verse uses men, not a man, for its direction and 
government. 

Going back upon the pages of history, the 
student sees Whittier in his study, and listens to 
his singing ; he sees Mrs. Stowe educating with 

12 



178 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

Uncle Tom in his cabin ; he notes Garrison 
forging thunderbolts in his Liberator ; he 
sees old Gamaliel Bailey with his National Era ; 
he sees Sumner fall by a bludgeon in the Senate ; 
he hears the eloquent thunderings of Hale and 
bluff old Ben Wade and Giddings and Julian 
and Chase ; he sees Lovejoy fall by the hands of 
his assassin ; he hears the guns of the old 
" fanatic" John Brown, as he began "marching 
on"; he sees a great army marshalled for the 
contest which led up to the election of the 
" Martyr President," and the crowning victories 
which redeemed the grandest nation upon which 
the sun shines from the curse of human slavery. 
Giving due credit to all, detracting no single 
honor from any one in all the distinguished 
galaxy of honored names, and yet the thuoghtful 
student can reach but one conclusion, and that 
is, that in the timeliness of his acts, in the hero- 
ism with which they were carried out, in the un- 
selfishness which marked every step of the way, 
and in the wide-reaching effects of his work, Dr. 
Marcus Whitman, as a man and patriot and 
national benefactor, was excelled by none. 

Such unselfish devotion, such obedience to 
the call of duty, such love of "the flag that 
makes you free," such heroism, which never even 
once had an outcropping of personal benefit, will 
forever stand, when fully understood, as among 
the brightest and most inspiring pages of Amer- 
ican history. 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 179 

The young American loves to read of Paul 
Revere. He dwells with thrilling interest upon 
the ride of the boy Archie Gillespie, who saw the 
great dam breaking, and at the risk of his life 
rode down the valley of the Conemaugh to 
Johnstown, shouting, " Flee for your lives, the 
flood, the flood!" The people fled and two 
minutes behind the boy rolled the mighty flood 
of annihilation. How painter, and poet, and 
patriot, lingers over the ride of the gallant Sher- 
idan "from Winchester, twenty miles away." 
All the honor is deserved; he saved an army 
and turned a defeat into victory. 

But how do all these compare with the ride 
of Whitman ? It, too, was a ride for life or death. 
Over snow-capped mountains, along ravines, 
traveled only by savage beasts and savage men. 
It was a plunge through icy rivers, tired, hungry, 
cold, and yet he rode on and on, until he stood 
before the President, four thousand miles away! 
Let us hope and believe that the time will come 
when Whitman, standing before President Tyler 
and Secretary Webster, in his buckskin breeches 
and a dress as we have shown, which was never 
woven in loom, will be the subject of some great 
painting. It would be grandly historical and 
tell a story that a patriotic people should never 
forget. 

Alice Wellington Rollins wrote the following 
poem, which was published in the New York In- 



180 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

dependent, and widely copied. The Cassell 
Publishing Company made it one of their gems 
in their elegant volume, "Representative Poems 
of Living Poets," and kindly consent to its use 
in this volume: 

WHITMAN'S RIDE. 
Listen, my children, and you shall hear 
Of a hero's ride that saved a State. 
A midnight ride? Nay, child, for a year 
He rode with a message that could not wait. 
Eighteen hundred and forty-two; 
No railroad then had gone crashing through 
To the Western coast; not a telegraph wire 
Had guided there the electric fire; 
But a fire burned in one strong man's breast 
For a beacon light. You shall hear the rest. 

He said to his wife; "At the Fort .to-day,} 

At Walla Walla, I heard them say 

That a hundred British men had crossed 

The mountains; and one young, ardent priest 

Shouted, ' Hurrah for Oregon! 

The Yankees are late by a year at least! ' 

They must know this at once at Washington. 

Another year, and all would be lost. 

Someone must ride, to give the alarm 

Across the Continent; untold harm 

In an hour's delay, and only I 

Can make them understand how or why 

The United States must keep Oregon! " 

Twenty-four hours he stopped to think. 
To think! Nay then, if he thought at all, 
He thought as he tightened his saddle-girth. 
One tried companion, who would not shrink 
From the worst to come; with a mule or two 
To carry arms and supplies, would do. 
With a guide as far as Fort Bent. And she, 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED ORIGON, 

The woman of proud, heroic worth, 
Who must part from him, if she wept at all, 
Wept as she gathered whatever he 
Might need for the outfit on his way. 
Fame for the man who rode that day 
Into the wilds at his Country's call; 
And for her who waited for him a year 
On that wild Pacific Coast, a tear! 

Then he said " Good-bye!" and with firm-set lips 
Silently rode from his cabin door 
Just as the sun rose over the tips 
Of the phantom mountain that loomed before 
The woman there in the cabin door, 
With a dread at her heart she had not known 
When she, with him, had dared to cross 
The Great Divide. None better than she 
Knew what the terrible ride would cost 
As he rode, and she waited, each alone. 
Whether all were gained or all were lost, 
No message of either gain or loss 
Could reach her; never a greeting stir 
Her heart with sorrow or gladness; he 
In another year would come back to her 
If all went well; and if all went ill— 
Ah, God! could even her courage still 
The pain at her heart? If the blinding snow 
Were his winding-sheet, she would never know; 
If the Indian arrow pierced his side, 
She would never know where he lay and died; 
If the icy mountain torrents drowned 
His cry for help, she would hear no sound! 
Nay. none would hear, save God, who knew 
What she had to bear, and he had to do. 
The clattering hoof-beats died away 
On the Walla Walla. Ah! had she known 
They would echo in history still to-day 
As they echoed then from her heart of stone! 

He had left the valley. The mountains mock 
His coming. Behind him, broad and deep, 



182 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON 

The Columbia meets the Pacific tides; 
Before him — four thousand miles before — 
Four thousand miles from his cabin door, 
The Potomac meets the Atlantic. On 
Over the trail grown rough and steep, 
Now soft on the snow, now loud on the rock, 
Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides. 
The United States must keep Oregon. 

It was October when he left 

The Walla Walla, though little heed 

Paid he to the season. Nay, indeed, 

In the lonely canyons just ahead, 

Little mattered it what the almanac said. 

He heard the coyotes bark; but they 

Are harmless creatures. No need to fear 

A deadly rattlesnake coiled too near. 

No rattlesnake ever was so bereft 

Of sense as to creep out such a day 

In the frost. Nay, scarce would a grizzly care 

For a sniff at him. Only a man would dare 

The bitter cold, in whose heart and brain 

Burned the quenchless flame of a great desire; 

A man with nothing himself to gain 

From success, but whose heart-blood kept its fire 

While with freezing face he rode on and on. 

The United States must keep Oregon. 

It was November when they came 

To the icy stream. Would he hesitate ? 

Not he, the man who carried a State 

At his saddle bow. They have made the leap; 

Horse and rider have plunged below 

The icy current that could not tame 

Their proud life-current's fiercer flow. 

They swim for it, reach it, clutch the shore, 

Climb the river bank, cold and steep, 

Mount, and ride the rest of that day, 

Cased in an armor close and fine 

As ever an ancient warrior wore; 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON 183 

Armor of ice that dared to shine 
Back at a sunbeam's dazzling ray, 
Fearless as plated steel of old 
Before that slender lance of gold. 

It is December as they ride 

Slowly across the Great Divide; 

The blinding storm turns day to night, 

And clogs their feet; the snowflakes roll 

The winding-sheet about them; sight 

Is darkened; faint the despairing soul. 

No trail before or behind them. Spur 

His horse ? Nay, child, it were death to stir ! 

Motionless horse and rider stand, 

Turning to stone; till one poor mule, 

Pricking his ears as if to say 

If they gave him rein he would find the way, 

Found it and led them back, poor fool, 

To last night's camp in that lonely land. 

It was February when he rode 

Into St. Louis. The gaping crowd 

Gathered about him with questions loud 

And eager. He raised one frozen hand 

With a gesture of silent, proud command; 

" I am here to ask, not answer ! Tell 

Me quick, is the Treaty signed ?" " Why yes ! 

In August, six months ago or less !" 

Six months ago ! Two months before 

The gay young priest at the fortress showed 

The English hand ! Two months before, 

Four months ago at his cabin door, 

He had saddled his horse ! Too late then. "Well, 

But Oregon ? Have they signed the State 

Away ?" "Of course not. Nobody cares 

About Oregon." He in silence bares 

His head. "Thank God ! I am not too late." 

It was March when he rode at last 
Into the streets of Washington. 



HOW MAKQm WHITMAN SAVED OM£dON, 

The warning questions came thick and fast; 

" Do you know that the British will colonize, 

If you wait another year, Oregon r 

And the Northwest, thirty-six times the size 

Of Massachusetts ?" A courteous stare, 

And the Government murmurs: '"Ah, indeed ! 

Pray,why do you think that we should care ? 

With Indian arrows and mountain snow 

Between us, we never can colonize 

The wild Northwest from the East you know, 

If you doubt it, why, we will let you read 

The London Examiner ; proofs enough 

The Northwest is worth just a pinch of snuff." 

And the Board of Missions that sent him out. 
Gazed at the worn and weary man 
With stern displeasure. " Pray, sir, who 
Gave you orders to undertake 
This journey hither, or to incur 
Without due cause, such great expense 
To the Board ? Do you suppose we can 
Overlook so grave an offense ? 
And the Indian converts ? What about 
The little flock, for whose precious sake 
We sent you West ? Can it be that you 
Left them without a shepherd ? Most 
Extraordinary conduct, sir, 
Thus to desert your chosen post." 

Ah, well ! What mattered it ! He had dared 
A hundred deaths, in his eager pride, 
To bring to his Country at Washington 
A message, for which, then, no one cared ! 
But Whitman could act as well as ride. 
The United States must keep the Northwest. 
He — whatever might say the rest — 
Cared, and would colonize Oregon ! 

It was October, forty-two, 

When the clattering hoof-beats died away 



MOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 185 

On the Walla Walla, that fateful day. 

It was September, forty-three — 

Little less than a year, you see — 

When the woman who waited thought she heard 

The clatter of hoot-beats that she knew 

On the Walla Walla again. " What word 

From Whitman ? " Whitman himself ! And see ! 

What do her glad eyes look upon ? 

The first of two hundred wagons rolls 

Into the valley before her. He 

Who, a year ago, had left her side, 

Had brought them over the Great Divide — 

Men, women and children, a thousand souls — 

The army to occupy Oregon. 

You know the rest. In the books you have read 

That the British were not a year ahead. 

The United States have kept Oregon, 

Because of one Marcus Whitman. He 

Rode eight thousand miles, and was not too late ! 

In a single hand, not a Nation's fate, 

Perhaps ; but a gift for the Nation, she 

Would hardly part with it to-day, if we 

May believe what the papers say upon 

This great Northwest, that was Oregon. 



And Whitman ? Ah ! my children, he 

And his wife sleep now in a martyr's grave ! 

Murdered ! Murdered, both he and she 

By the Indian souls they went West to save ! 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE CHANGE IN PUBLIC SENTIMENT. 



The reader of history seldom sees a more 
notable instance of a changed public sentiment, 
than he can find in the authentic records dating 
from March, 1843, to July, 1846. If the epitome 
sketch made in another chapter has been studied 
the conditions now to be observed are phe- 
nomenal. Statesman after statesman puts him- 
self on record. You hear no more of " No wagon 
road to Oregon," "That weary, desert road," 
those "Impassable mountains;" nor does Mr. Mc- 
Duffie jump up to "Thank God for His mercy, 
for the impassable barrier of the Rocky Moun- 
tains." No Mr. Benton arises and asks that 
" The statue of the fabled God Terminus should 
be erected on the highest peak, never to be 
thrown down." Nor does Mr. Jackson appeal 
for "A compact Government." 

Before the man clothed in buckskin left the 
National Capital, a message was on the way to 

is6 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 187 

our Minister to England proclaiming "The 
United States will consent to give nothing be- 
low the latitude of forty-nine degrees." When 
it was known that a great caravan of two hun- 
dred wagons and one thousand Americans had 
started for Oregon, a second message went to 
Minister Everett still more pointed and positive, 
"The United States will never consent that the 
boundary line to the Pacific Ocean shall move 
one foot below the latitude of forty-nine degrees." 
It is a historical fact that one hundred and 
twenty-five of the wagons went through. 

The whole people began to talk, as well as 
to think and act. They had suddenly waked up 
to a great peril, and were casting about how to 
meet it. A political party painted upon its ban- 
ners, "Oregon, fifty-four forty, or fight." Multi- 
tudes of those now living remember this great 
uprising of the people. How was it done? Who 
did it? Was it a spontaneous move without a 
reason? Intelligent readers can scan the facts 
of history and judge for themselves. But it is 
an historical fact there was a remarkably sudden 
change. 

President Tyler, and his great Secretar}', 
Webster, during the balance of his administra- 
tion, used all the arts of diplomacy, and seemed 
to make but little progress, except a promise of 
a Minister Plenipotentiary to treat with the 
United States. At any time prior to the arrival 



188 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

of Marcus Whitman in Washington, or any time* 
during the conference upon the Ashburton 
Treaty, had the English diplomats proposed to 
run the boundary line upon forty-nine degrees 
until it struck the Columbia River, and down 
that river to the ocean, there is multiplied evi- 
dence that the United States would have accepted 
it at once. 

But England did not want a part, she wanted 
all. During the negotiations in 1827 as to the 
renewal of the Treaty of 1818, her commissioners 
stated the case diplomatically, thus: "Great 
Britain claims no exclusive sovereignty over any 
portion of that territory. Her present claim is 
not in respect to any part, but to the whole and is 
limited to a right of joint occupancy in common 
with other States, leaving the right of exclusive 
dominion in abeyance." 

Some have urged that this was a give away 
and a quit claim on the part of England, but at 
most, it is only the language of diplomacy, to be 
interpreted by the acts of the party in contest. 
Those who met and know the men in power in 
Oregon in those pioneer days, can fully attest 
the assertion of the Edinburgh Review in an arti- 
cle published in 1843, after Whitman's visit to 
Washington. It says: " They are chiefly Scotch- 
men, and a greater proportion of shrewdness, 
daring and commercial activity is probably not 
to be found in the same number of heads in the 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 189 

world." They made their grand mistake, how- 
ever, that while being true Britons, they were 
Hudson Bay Company men first and foremost, 
and were anxious to keep out all immigration. 
None better knew the value of Oregon lands for 
the purposes of the agriculturist, than those 
"shrewd old Scotchmen" did. 

About every trading post they had cleared 
farms, planted orchards and vineyards, and 
tested all kinds of grains. Mrs. Whitman, in her 
diary of September 14th, 1836, speaking of her 
visit to Fort Vancouver, says, "We were invited 
to see the farm. We rode for fifteen miles dur- 
ing the afternoon and visited the farms and 
stock, etc. They estimate their wheat crop this 
year at four thousand bushels, peas the same, 
oats and barley fifteen and seventeen hundred 
bushels each. The potato and turnip fields are 
large and fine. Their cattle are large and fine 
and estimated at one thousand head. They 
have swine in abundance, also sheep and goats, 
but the sheep are of an inferior quality. We 
also find hens, turkeys and pigeons, but no geese. 
Every day we have something new. The store- 
houses are filled from top to bottom with un- 
broken bales of goods, made up of every article 
of comfort." 

She tells of " A new and improved method of 
raising cream" for butter making, and "The 
abundant supply of the best cheese." 



190 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

In another note she gives the menu for din- 
ner. "First, we are treated to soup, which is 
very good, made of all kinds of vegetables, with 
a little rice. Tomatoes are a prominent vege- 
table. After soup the dishes are removed and 
roast duck, pork, tripe, fish, salmon or sturgeon, 
with other things too tedious to mention. When 
these are removed a rice pudding or apple pie 
is served with musk melons, cheese, biscuits and 
wine." 

Shrewd Scotsmen! And yet this is the coun- 
try which for years thereafter American States- 
men declared "A desert waste," "Unfit for the 
habitation of civilized society," and from which 
our orators thanked Heaven they were "separ- 
ated by insurmountable barriers of mountains," 
and "impassable deserts." We repeat, none 
better knew the value of Oregon soil for the 
purposes of agriculture, than did these princely 
retainers of England, and they well knew, that 
when agriculture and civilization gained a foot- 
hold, both they and their savage retainers would 
be compelled to move on. They held a bonanza 
of wealth in their hands, in a land of Arcadia, 
which they ruled to suit themselves. 

It is not at all strange that they made the 
fight they did, they had in 1836, feared the ad- 
vent of Dr. Whitman's old wagon, more than an 
army with banners. They had tried in every 
way in their power, except by absolute force, to 



HOW MARC S WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 191 

arrest its progress. They foresaw that every 
turn of its wheels upon Oregon soil, endangered 
fur. Those in command at Fort Hall and Fort 
Boise were warned to be more watchful. The 
consequence was that not another wheel was 
permitted to go beyond those Forts, from 1836 
to 1843. Dr. Edwards, however, reports that 
"Dr. Robert Newell brought three wagons 
through to Walla Walla in 1840." 

But the fact remains that wagon after wagon 
was abandoned at those points and the things 
necessary for the comfort of the immigrant were 
sacrificed, and men, women and children were 
compelled to take to the pack-saddle, or journey 
the balance of the weary way on foot. Great 
stress was laid at these points of entrance, upon 
the dangers of the route to Oregon, and the 
comparative ease and comfort of the journey to 
California. Hundreds were thus induced to give 
up the journey to Oregon, in making which they 
would be forced to abandon their wagons and 
goods, and they turned their faces toward Cali- 
fornia. 

General Palmer, in speaking of this, says, 
"While at Fort Hall in 1842, the perils of the 
way to Oregon were so magnified as to make us 
suppose the journey thither was impossible. 
They represented the dangers in passing over 
Snake River and the Columbia as very great. 
That but little stock had ever crossed those 



192 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

streams in safety. And more and |worst of 
all, they represented that three or four tribes of 
Indians along the route had combined to resist 
all immigration." They represented that, " Fam- 
ine and the snows of winter Would overtake all 
with destruction, before they could reach Ore- 
gon." 

They did succeed in scaring this band of one 
hundred and thirty-seven men, women and 
children in 1842 into leaving all their wagons 
behind, but they went on to Oregon on pack- 
saddles. 

In the meantime they ran a literary bureau 
for all it was worth, in the disparagement of 
Oregon for all purposes except those of the fur 
trader. The English press was mainly depended 
upon for this work, but the best means in reach 
were used that all these statements should reach 
the ruling powers and the reading people of the 
United States. 

The effect of this literary bureau upon Ameri- 
can statesmen and the most intelligent class of 
readers prior to the Spring of 1843, * s easily seen 
by the sentiments quoted, and by their published 
acts, in refusing to legislate for Oregon. 
Modern historians have said that, "The Hudson 
Bay Company and the English never at any 
time claimed anything south of the Columbia 
river." Such a statement can nowhere be 
proved from any official record; on the contrary, 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 193 

there are multiplied expressions and acts prov- 
ing the opposite. 

As early as the year 1828, the Hudson Bay 
Company saw the value of the Falls of the Wil- 
lamette at Oregon City for manufacturing pur- 
poses, and took possession of the same; as Gov- 
ernor Simpson in command of the Company 
said, "To establish a British Colony of their 
retired servants." "Governor Simpson," says 
Dr. Eells in his "History of Indian Missions," 
"said in 1841 that the colonists in the Willamette 
Valley were British subjects, and that the 
English had no rivals on the coast but Russia, 
and that the United States will never possess 
more than a nominal jurisdiction, nor will long 
possess even that, on the west side of the Rocky 
Mountains." And he added, "Supposing the 
country to be divided to-morrow to the entire 
satisfaction of the most unscrupulous patriot in 
the Union, I challenge conquest to bring my 
prediction and its own power to the test by 
imposing the Atlantic tariff on the ports of the 
Pacific." 

Such sentiments from the Governor, the man 
then in supreme power, who moulded and 
directed English sentiments, is of deep signifi- 
cance. A man only second in influence to Gov- 
ernor Simpson and even a much broader and 
brainier man, Dr. John McLoughlin, Factor of 
the Company, "said to me in 1842," says Dr. 

13 



194 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

Eells, "that in fifty years the whole country will 
be filled with the descendants of the Hudson 
Bay Company." But while they believed, just 
as the American immigrants did, that as a result 
of the Treaty of 18 18-28, the country would 
belong to the nationality settling it; yet they had 
so long held supreme power that they were slow 
to think that such power was soon to pass from 
them. 

That the diplomacy of the home Government, 
the bold methods and "The shrewdness, daring 
and commercial activity in the heads" of the 
Rulers, that the Edinburgh Review pictures, were 
all to be thwarted and that speedily, had not 
entered into their calculations, and they did not 
awake to a sense of the real danger until those 
hundred and twenty-five wagons, loaded with 
live Americans and their household goods, 
rolled down the mountain sides and into the 
Valley of the Willamette on that memorable 
October day, 1843. 

It was America's protest, made in an Ameri- 
can fashion. It settled the question of Ameri- 
can interests as far as Americans could settle 
it under the terms of the Treaty of 181S, as they 
understood it. 

Under the full belief that Whitman would 
bring with him a large delegation, the Ameri- 
cans met and organized before he reached 
Oregon. And when the Whitman caravan 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 195 

arrived, they outnumbered the English and 
Canadian forces three to one; and the Stars and 
Stripes were run up, never again to be hauled 
down by any foreign power in all the wide 
domain of Oregon. 

True, there was yet a battle to be fought. 
The interests at stake were too grand for the 
party who held supreme power so long to yield 
without a contest. But there were rugged, brave, 
intelligent American citizens now in Oregon, 
and there to stay. They had flooded home peo- 
ple with letters describing the salubrity of the 
climate and the fertility of the soil. Statesmen 
heard of it. 

Sudden conversions some times make un- 
reasonable converts. The very men who had 
rung the changes upon "worthless," "barren," 
"cut off by impassable deserts," now turned and 
not only claimed the legitimate territory up to 
forty-nine degrees, but made demands which 
were heard across the Atlantic. We will have 
"Oregon and fifty- four forty, or fight." 

In a lengthy message in December, 1845, 
President Polk devotes nearly one-fifth of his 
space to the discussion of the Oregon question, 
and rehearses the discussion pro and con be- 
tween the two governments and acknowledges, 
that thus far there has been absolute failure. He 
tells Congress that " The proposition of compro- 
mise, which was made and rejected, was, by my 



196 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

order, subsequently withdrawn, and our title up 
to 54° 40' asserted, and, as it is believed, main- 
tained by irrefragable facts and arguments." In 
that message, President Polk argued in favor of 
terminating the joint occupancy by giving the 
stipulated notice, and that the jurisdiction of the 
United States be extended over the entire terri- 
tory, with a line of military posts along the en- 
tire frontier to the Pacific. 

It all seemed warlike. The withdrawing of 
"the joint occupancy," many statesmen believed 
would precipitate a war. Senator Crittenden 
and others believed such to be the case. War 
seemed inevitable. Even Senator McDuffie, 
whom we have before quoted, as unwilling to 
"Give a pinch of snuff for all the territory be- 
yond the Rockies," now is on record saying, 
"Rather make that territory the grave of Amer- 
icans, and color the soil with their blood, than to 
surrender one inch." While it was generally 
conceded that we would have a war, yet there 
were wise, cool-headed men in the Halls of 
National Legislation, determined to avert such 
disaster if possible, without sacrificing National 
honor. 

The debate on giving legal notice to cancel 
the Treaty of 1818, as to joint occupancy, was the 
absorbing theme of Congress, and lasted for 
forty days before reaching a vote, and then passed 
by the great majority of 109. 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 197 

But the Senate was more conservative and, 
continued the debate after the measure had 
passed the House by such an overwhelming ma- 
jority. They saw the whole Country already in 
a half paralyzed condition. Its business had de- 
creased, its capital was withdrawn from active 
participation in business, and its vessels stood 
empty at the wharves of ports of entry. Such 
statesmen as Crittenden and others who had 
not hurried to get in front of the excited people, 
now saw the necessity for decided action to avert 
war and secure peace. To brave public opinion 
and antagonize the Lower House of Congress 
required the largest courage. 

Mr. Crittenden said, "I believe yet, a major- 
ity is still in favor of preserving the peace, if it 
can de done without dishonor. They favor the 
settling of the questions in dispute peaceably 
and honorably, to compromise by negotiations 
and arbitration, or some other mode known and 
recognized among nations as suitable and proper 
and honorable." 

Mr. Webster had been too severely chastised 
by both friends and enemies for his part in the 
Ashburton Treaty, to make him anxious to be 
prominent in the discussion in the earlier weeks, 
but when he did speak he pointed out the very 
road which the Nation would travel in its way 
for peace; viz.: a compromise upon latitude forty- 
nine. 



198 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

Webster said, " In my opinion it is not the 
judgment of this country, nor the judgment of 
the Senate, that the Government of the United 
States should run the hazard of a war for Ore- 
gon by renouncing, as no longer fit for consider- 
ation, the proposition of adjustment made by 
this Government thirty years ago and repeated 
in the face of the world." His great speech, 
which extended through the sessions of two days, 
was a masterly defense and explanation of the 
Ashburton-Webster Treaty, which was signed 
three years before. 

No American Statesman of the time had so 
full and complete a knowledge of the questions 
at issue as had Webster. He had canvassed 
every one of them in all their bearings with the 
shrewdest English diplomats, and had nothing 
to learn. His great speech can be marked as 
the turning point in the discussion, and the 
friends of peace took fresh courage. 

The first and ablest aid Mr. Webster received 
was from Calhoun, then second to none in his 
influence. In his speech he said, "What has 
transpired here and in England within the last 
three months must, I think, show that the public 
opinion in both countries is coming to a conclu- 
sion that this controversy ought to be settled, 
and is not very diverse in the one country or 
the other, as to the general basis of such settle- 
ment. That basis is the offer made by the United 
States to England in 1826." 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 199 

„ It may here be observed that President Mon- 
roe offered to compromise on forty-nine degrees. 
President Adams did the same in 1826, while 
President Tyler, in the year of Whitman's visit 
(1843), again offered the same compromise, and 
England had rejected each and all. She ex- 
pected a much larger slice. 

Gen. Cass followed Calhoun in a fiery war 
speech, which called out the applause of the 
multitude, in which he claimed that the United 
States owned the territory up to the Russian 
line of 54 40' and he "Would press the claim at 
the peril of war." 

Dayton.and other Senators asked that present 
conditions be maintained, and that " The people 
of the United States meet Great Britain by a 
practical adoption of her own doctrine, that the 
title of the country should pass to those who 
occupied it." 

This latter view was the pioneer view of the 
situation, and which was so fully believed as to 
cause the memorable ride of Whitman in mid- 
winter from Oregon to Washington. The reso- 
lution of notice to the English Government, as 
we have seen, passed the House Feb. 9, 1846, 
and came to a vote and passe \ the Senate April 
23d, by 42 to 10. It, however, contained two 
important amendments to the House resolution, 
both suggestive of compromise. And as the 
President was allowed "At his discretion to serve 



200 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

the notice," the act was shorn of much of * its 
warlike meaning. 

When it is remembered that the President's 
message and recommendations were made on 
the 2d of Dec. 1845, an d the question had ab- 
sorbed the attention of Congress until April 23, 
1846, before final action, it can be marked as one 
of the most memorable discussions that has ever 
occurred in our Halls of National Legislation. 

It had now been, three years since Whitman 
had made his protest to President Tyler and his 
Secretary; and while Congress had debated and 
the whole Nation was at a white heat of interest, 
the old pioneers had gone on settling the ques- 
tion in their own way by taking possession of the 
land, building themselves homes, erecting a 
State House, and, although four thousand miles 
distant from the National Capital, enacting laws 
in keeping with American teachings, and de- 
meaning themselves as became good citizens. 
Love of Country, with sacrifices made to do 
honor to the flag, has seldom had a more beauti- 
ful and impressive illustration than that given 
by the old pioneers of Oregon during the years 
of their neglect by the home Government, which 
even seemed so far distant that it had lost all 
interest in their welfare. 



CHAPTER X. 



THE FAILURE OF MODERN HISTORY TO DO JUSTICE 
TO DR. WHITMAN. 



Says an old author: " History is a river in- 
creasing in volume with every mile of its length, 
and the tributaries that join it nearer and nearer 
the Sea are taken up and swept onward by a 
current that grows ever mightier." Napoleon 
said: "History is a fable agreed upon." If Na- 
poleon could have looked downward to the clos- 
ing years of this century, and seen the genius of 
the literary world striving to do him honor, he 
would perhaps have modified the sentiment. 

History at its best, isacollection of biographies 
of the World's great leaders, and is best studied 
in biography. To be of value, it must be accu- 
rate. Scarcely has any great leader escaped 
from the stings of history, but it is well to know 
and believe that time will correct the wrong. 
The case oi Dr. Whitman is peculiar in the fact 

201 



202 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

that all his contemporaries united in doing him 
honor, save and except one, Bishop Brouillet. 
The men who knew the value of his work and 
his eminent services, such as Grey, Reed, Simp- 
son, Barrows and Parkman; the correspond- 
ence of Spalding, Lovejoy, Eells, and the Lees, 
have made the record clear. 

It has been reserved for modern historians of 
that class who have just discovered the "Mis- 
takes of Moses," and that Shakespeare never 
wrote Shakespeare's plays, to indulge in sneers 
and scoffs and to falsify the record. It is not 
the intention to attempt to reply to all these, 
but we shall notice the fallacies of two or three. 
In a recent edition of the history of the Lewis and 
Clark Expedition, published by F. P. Harper, 
New York, and edited by Dr. Elliott Coues, a 
most entertaining volume, and yet wholly mis- 
leading as to the final issue which resulted in 
Oregon becoming a part of the Republic, Dr. 
Coues in his dedication of the volume says: 

"To the people of the great West: Jefferson 
gave you the country. Lewis and Clark showed 
you the way. The rest is your own course of 
empire. Honor the Statesman who foresaw 
your West. Honor the brave men who first saw 
your West. May the memory of their glorious 
achievement be your precious heritage. Accept 
from my heart this undying record of the begin- 
ning of all your greatness. Elliott Coues." 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 203 

All honor to Jefferson, the far-sighted States- 
man; and a like honor to the courageous explor- 
ers, Lewis and Clark; but the writer of history 
should be true to facts. Lewis and Clark were 
not "The first men who saw your West." They 
were not the discoverers of Oregon. Old Cap- 
tain Gray did that a dozen years prior to the 
visit of Lewis and Clark. A writer of true his- 
tory should not have blinded his eyes to that 
fact on his dedicatory page. Captain Gray sailed 
into the mouth of the Columbia River on his 
good ship Columbia, from Boston, on May 7th, 
1792. The great River was named for his vessel. 
This, together with the title gained by the 
Louisiana purchase in 1803, and the Treaty with 
Spain and Mexico, more fully recited in another 
chapter, made the claim of the United States to 
ownership in the soil of Oregon. 

The mission of Lewis and Clark was not 
that of discoverers, but to spy out and report 
upon the value of the discovery already made. 
Their work required rare courage, and was ac- 
complished with such intelligence as to make 
them heroes; and both were rewarded with fat 
offices; one as the Governor of Louisiana, and 
the other as General Commissioner of Indian 
Affairs; and both were given large land grants. 
We have not been able to see in any of Dr. 
Coues' full notes, any explanation of such facts, 
but even if he has given such explanation, he 



204 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

had no right, as a truthful chronicler of history, 
to mislead the reader by his highly ornate dedi- 
catory: "Jefferson gave you the country, Lewis 
and Clark showed you the way." 

President Jefferson was much more of a seer 
and statesman than were his compeers. The 
Louisiana purchase, to him, was much more than 
gaining possession of the State at the mouth of 
the Mississippi River, with its rich acres for the 
use of slave-owners of the South. In his later 
years he said: "I looked forward with grati- 
fication to the time when the descendants 
of the settlers of Oregon would spread them- 
selves through the whole length of the coast, 
covering it with free, independent Americans, 
unconnected with us, but by the ties of blood 
and interest, and enjoying, like us, the rights of 
self-government." 

If the old Statesman could view the scene and 
the condition now, how much grander would be 
the view! It would be unjust to question the in- 
terest of President Jefferson in the North-West 
Territory; the great misfortune was, that the 
statesmen of his day were almost wholly obliv- 
ious to his appeals. The report made by the 
Lewis and Clark expedition was stuffed into a 
pigeon hole, and was not even published until 
eight years after the exploration, and after one 
of the explorers was dead. It was not received 
with a single ripple of enthusiasm by Congress 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 205 

or the people of the Nation. The Government, 
on the contrary, fourteen years after the advent 
of Lewis and Clark in Oregon, entered into a 
treaty with England, which virtually gave the 
English people the control of the entire country 
for more than the first third of the century. The 
most that can be said of Lewis and Clark is that 
they were faithful explorers, who blazed the way 
which Americans failed to travel, ^until in the 
fullness of time, a man appeared who led the 
way and millions followed. 

Among the most pointed defamers of Dr. 
Whitman is Mrs. Frances F. Victor, of Oregon, 
author of "The River of the West," who seldom 
loses an opportunity to attempt to belittle the 
man and his work. In a communication to the 
Chicago Inter Ocean, she openly charges that 
his journey to Washington in the winter of 1842 
and '43 was wholly for selfish interests. She 
charges that he was about to be removed from 
his Mission and wanted to present his case before 
the American Board. That he wanted his Mis- 
sion as " A stopping place for immigrants." In 
other words, it was for personal and pecuniary 
gain, that he made the perilous ride. We quote 
her exact language: 

"That there was considerable practical self- 
interest in his desire to be left to manage the 
Mission as he thought best, there can be no ques- 
tion. It was not for the Indians, altogether, he 



206 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

wished to remain. He foresaw the wealth and 
importance of the country and that his place must 
become asupply station totheannual emigrations. 
Instead of making high-comedy speeches to the 
President and Secretary of State, he talked with 
them about the Indians, and what would, in his 
opinion, be the best thing to be done for them 
and for the white settlers. His visit was, owing 
to the necessity that existed of explaining to the 
Board better than he could by letter, and more 
quickly, his reasons for wishing to remain at his 
Station, and to convince them it was for the 
best." Says Mrs. Victor, "The Missionaries all 
believed that the United States would finally se- 
cure a title to at least that portion of Oregon 
south of the Columbia River, out of whose rich 
lands they would be given large tracts by the 
Government, and that was reason enough for the 
loyalty exhibited." 

She openly charges that " Dr. Whitman acted 
deceitfully toward a'll the other members of the 
Mission," If such were true, is it it not strange 
that in all the years that followed, every man and 
woman among them were his staunchest and 
truest friends and most valiant defenders ? She 
proceeds to call Whitman " Ignorant and con- 
ceited to believe that he influenced Secretary 
Webster." That the story of his suffering, frost- 
bitten condition was false. " He was not frost- 
bitten, or he would have been incapacitated to 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 207 

travel," etc. Mrs. Victor makes a grave charge 
against Whitman. She says : " He got well to do 
by selling flour and grain and vegetables to immi- 
grants at high prices." Now, let us allow Dr. 
Spalding to answer this calumny. He knew 
Whitman and his work as well, or better than 
any other man. Dr. Spalding says : 

"Immigrants, by hundreds and thousand^, 
reached the Mission, way-worn, hungry, sick, and 
destitute, but he cared for all. Seven children 
of one family were left upon the hands of Dr. 
and Mrs. Whitman — one a babe four months 
old — and they cared for them all, giving food, 
clothing, and medicine without pay. Frequently, 
the Doctor would give away his entire food sup- 
ply, and have to send to me for grain to get 
through the Winter." 

She pointedly denies that Dr. Whitman went 
to Washington or the States with the expectation 
of bringing out settlers to Oregon. 

The letters recently published by the State 
Historical Society of Oregon, quoted in another 
chapter, were written by Dr. Whitman the year 
following his famous journey. In them he clearly 
reveals the reasons for the ride to Washington. 
The reader can believe Dr. Whitman or believe 
Mrs. Victor, but both can not be believed. 

In addition to these letters, we have the clear 
testimony of General Lovejoy, who went with 
him • of Rev. Mr. Spalding, of Elkanah Walker, 



208 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

Dr. Gray, Rev. Cushing Eells, P. B. Whitman, 
who accompanied him on his return trip ; Mr. 
Hinman, Dr. S. J. Parker, of Ithaca, N. Y., and 
the Rev. William Barrows, who had frequent 
conversations with him in St. Louis. In an inter- 
view with Dr. William Geiger, published in the 
New York Sun, January 17th, 1885, he says : " I 
was at Fort Walla Walla, and associated directly 
with Dr. Whitman when he started East to save 
Oregon. I was there when he returned, and I 
am, perhaps, the only living person who distinctly 
recollects all the facts. He left, not to go to St. 
Louis or to Boston, but for the distinct purpose 
of going to Washington to save Oregon ; and 
yet he had to be very discreet about it." 

Will the honest reader of history reject such 
testimony as worthless, and mark that of these 
modern skeptics valuable ? 

Mrs. Victor's charges, that selfishness and 
personal aggrandizement accounted for all the 
sacrifices made by Whitman, are preposterous in 
the light of testimony, and made utterly unten- 
able by the environments of the Missionary. 
There was no time in all the years that Dr. and 
Mrs. Whitman lived in Oregon, that they could 
not have packed all their worldly goods upon the 
backs of two mules. The American Board made 
no bribe of money to the men and women they 
sent out to Oregon and elsewhere. If the great 
farm he opened at Waiilatpui, and the buildings 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. °09 

he erected by his patient toil, had grown to be 
worth a million, it would not have added a 
single dollar to Whitman's wealth. Even the 
physician's fees given him by grateful sufferers, 
under the rules of the Board, were reported 
and counted as a part of his meagre salary. 

The idea that a man should leave wife and 
home, and endure the perils of a mid-winter 
journey to the States, to persuade Congress " To 
buy sheep " and " make his Mission a stopping 
place," or the American Board to allow him to 
work sixteen hours a day for the Cayuse 
Indians, is a heavy task on credulity, and is so 
far-fetched as to make Whitman's maligners only 
ridiculous. 

But it is Hubert Howe Bancroft, the author of 
the thirty-eight volume History of the Pacific 
States, who is the offender-in-chief. As a 
collector and historian, Bancroft necessarily re- 
quired many co-workers. It was in his failure to 
get them into harmony and tell the straight con- 
nected truth, in which he made his stupendous 
blunders. Chapter is arrayed against chapter, 
and volume against volume. One tells history, 
and another denies it. In Volume I, page 379, 
he refers to the incident, already fully recited in 
another chapter, of the visit of the Flathead 
Indians to St. Louis, and does not once doubt its 
historic accuracy ; but in Volume XXIII, another 
of his literary army works up the same historic 
incident, and says ; 



210 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

"The Presbyterians were never very expert 
in improvising Providences. Therefore when 
Gray, the great Untruthful, an whilom Chris- 
tian Mission builder, undertakes to appropriate 
to the Unseen Powers of his sect the sending of 
four native delegates to St. Louis in 1832, 
begging saviors for transmountain castaways, it 
is as most of Gray's affairs are, a failure. The 
Catholics manage such things better." 

On page 584, Volume I, "Chronicles of the 
Builders," Mr. Bancroft says: "The Missionaries 
and Pioneers of Oregon did much to assure the 
country to the United States. Had there been 
no movement of the kind, England would have 
extended her claim over the whole territory, 
with a fair prospect of making it her own." 

In another place says Mr. Bancroft, "The 
Missionary, Dr. Whitman, was no ordinary man. 
I do not know which to admire most in him, his 
coolness or his courage. His nerves were of 
steel, his patience was excelled only by his fear- 
lessness. In the mighty calm of his nature he 
was a Caesar for Christ." 

In the same volume, another of his literary 
co-workers proceeds to glorify John Jacob Astor, 
and to give him all the honors for saving Ore- 
gon to the Union. Mr. Bancroft says: 

"The American flag was raised none too soon 
at Fort Astoria, to secure the great Oregon 
Country to the United States, for already the 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 211 

men of Montreal were hastening thither to seize 
the prize; but they were too late. It is safe to 
say that had not Mr. Astor moved in this matter 
as he did, had his plans been frustrated or his 
purposes delayed, the Northern boundary of the 
United States might today be the 42d parallel 
of latitude. Thus we see the momentous sig- 
nificance of the movement." 

The author proceeds to picture Astor and 
make him the hero in saving Oregon. In 
another chapter we have given the full force and 
effect of Mr. Astor's settlement at Astoria. A 
careful reading will only show the exaggerated 
importance of the act, when compared with 
other acts which the historian only passes with a 
sneer or in silence. John Jacob Astor was in 
Oregon to make money and for no other pur- 
pose. 

In Volume I, Page 579, " Chronicle of the 
Builders," Mr. Bancroft allows Mrs. Victor, his 
authority, to dip her pen deep in slander. He 
refers to both the Methodist Missions on the 
Willamette, and the Congregational and Pres- 
byterian Missions of the Walla Walla, and 
writes: 

" But missionary work did not pay, however, 
either with the white men or the red, where- 
upon the apostles of this region began to attend 
more to their own affairs than to the saving of 
savage souls. They broke up their establish- 



212 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

ments in 1844, ana thenceforth became a political 
clique, whose chief aim was to acquire other 
men's property." 

Please note the charges. Here are Christian 
men and women who have for years deprived 
themselves of all the benefits of civilization, and 
endured the hardships and dangers of frontier 
life, professedly that they might preach the gos- 
pel to savage people, but says Mr. Bancroft: 

"Missionary work did not pay." In the sense 
of money making, when did Missionary work 
ever pay? This history of the Pacific States is 
a history for the generations to come. It is to go 
into Christian homes and upon the shelves of 
Christian libraries. If it is true, Christianity 
stands disgraced and Christian Missionaries 
stand dishonored. 

Mr. Bancroft says: "They broke up their es- 
tablishments in 1844 anH became a political 
clique, whose chief aim was to acquire other 
men's property." As usual, another one of the 
historian's valuable aids comes upon the stage in 
the succeeding volume, and gives a horrifying 
account of "The great massacre at Dr. Whit- 
man's Mission, on Nov. 29th, 1847." He tells us 
"There were at the time seventy souls at the 
Mission" and "Fourteen persons were killed and 
forty-seven taken captives." Does this prove 
the historian's truthfulness who had before told 
his readers that "They broke up their establish- 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON 213 

ments in 1844 and thencefortn became a political 
clique, whose aim was to acquire other men's 
property?" There is no possible excuse for the 
historian to allow his aids to lead him into such 
blunders as we have pointed out. 

The real facts were in reach. Heie were men 
and women educated, cultivated, exiles from 
home, engaged in the great work of civilizing 
and Christianizing savages, and without a fact 
to sustain the charge, it is openly asserted that 
they gave up their work and entered upon the 
race for political power and for wealth. Instead 
of the Missions of the American Board being 
"closed in 1844," they were at no time in a more 
prosperous condition; as the record of Dr. Eells, 
Dr. Spalding and Dr. Whitman all show. 

There is not a particle of evidence that Dr. 
Whitman ever took any part in any political 
movement in Oregon; save and except as his 
great effort to bring in settlers to secure the 
country to the United States may be called polit- 
ical. As soon as he could leave the emigrants, 
he hurried home to his Mission, and at once took 
up his heavy work which he had laid aside eleven 
months before. He went on building and plant- 
ing, and sowing and teaching; the busiest of busy 
men up to the very date of the massacre. In his 
young manhood he sacrificed ease in a civilized 
home, and he and his equally noble wife, dedica- 
ted themselves and their lives to the Missionary 



214 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

service. At all times they were the same patient, 
quiet, uncomplaining toilers. 

Why should the great historian of the Pacific 
States stand above their martyr graves and 
attempt to discredit their lives, and dishonor 
their memories? Dr. Whitman exhibited as 
much patriotism, and performed as grand an act 
of heroism as any man of this century, and yet, 
Mr. Bancroft devotes half a dozen volumes to 
"The Chronicle of the Builders," in which he 
presents handsome photographs and clear, well- 
written sketches of hundreds of men, but they 
are mainly millionaires and politicians. The 
historian seems to have had no room for a Mis- 
sionary or a poor Doctor. They were only pre- 
tending " to save savage souls." And that "did 
not pay," and "they broke up their settlements 
in 1844 and thenceforth became a political clique ' 
whose "chief aim was to acquire other men's 
property." 

It is a slander of the basest class, not backed 
up by a single credible fact, wholly dishonorable 
to the author and discredits his entire history. 
An old poet says: 

" And ever the right comes uppermost, 
And ever is justice done! " 

The Christian and patiotic people who be- 
lieve in honest dealing, will, in the years to come, 
compel all such histories to be re-written and 
their malice expunged, or they will cease to find 
an honored place in the best libraries. 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 215 

It is by such history that the modern public 
has been blinded, and the real heroes relegated 
to the rear to make room for favorites. ( But 
facts are stubborn things, "The truth is mighty 
and will prevail." The great public is honest 
and loves justice and honesty; and it will not 
permit such a record to stand. The awakening 
has already begun. The time is coming when 
the martyred heroes in their unhonored graves 
at Waiilatpui, will receive the reward due for 
their patriotic and heroic service. 

It is also gratifying to be able to observe that 
this malevolence is limited to narrow bounds. 
It has originated and has lived only in the fer- 
tile brains of two or three boasters of historic 
knowledge, who have made up in noise for all 
lack of principle and justice. They seem to have 
desired to gain notoriety for themselves and im- 
agined that the world would admire their cour- 
age. It was Mr. Bancroft's great misfortune that 
this little coterie in Oregon were entrusted with 
the task of writing the most notable history of 
modern times, and his great work and his hon- 
ored name will have to bear the odium of it until 
his volumes are called in and the grievous 
wrong is righted. It will be done. Mr. E. C. 
Ross, of Prescott, says in the Oregonian in 1884: 

"Time will vindicate Dr. Whitman, and when 
all calumnies, and their inventors, shall have 
been forgotten, his name, and that of his devoted, 



216 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

noble wife, will stand forth in history as martyrs 
to the cause of God and their Country." 

Let the loyal, patriotic men and women of 
America resolve that the time to do this is now. 



CHAPTER XI. 



THE MASSACRE AT WAIILATPUI. 



In all the years since the terrible tragedy at 
Waiilatpui, historians have been seeking to find 
the cause of that great crime. 

Some have traced it to religious jeaiousies, 
but have, in a great measure, failed to back such 
charges with substantial facts. It seems rather 
to have been a combination of causes working 
together for a common purpose. 

For nearly half a century, as we have seen 
in the history of Oregon, the Indians and the 
Hudson Bay Company had been working har- 
moniously together. It was a case in which 
civilization had accommodated itself to the de- 
sires of savage life. The Company plainly 
showed the Indians that they did not wish their 
lands, or to deprive them of their homes. It 
only wanted their labor, and in return it would 
pay the Indians in many luxuries and comforts. 
The Indians were averse to manual labor, and 

217. 



218 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

the great Company had not seen fit to encour- 
age it. They did not desire to see them plant 
or sow, raise cattle, or build houses for them- 
selves and their families. That would directly 
interfere with their work as fur gatherers, and 
break in upon the source of wealth to the Com- 
pany. To keep them at the steel trap, and in 
the chase, was the aim of the Hudson Bay pol- 
icy, and such was congenial to the Indian, and 
just what he desired. 

The Jesuit Priests who were attached to the 
Hudson Bay Company, seconded the interest of 
the Company and attempted to teach religion to 
the Indian and still leave him a savage. Upon 
the coming of the Protestant Missionaries, the 
Indians welcomed them and expressed great de- 
light at the prospect of being taught. They 
gave their choice locations to the Missions, and 
most solemn promise to co-operate in the work. 
But neither they nor their fathers had used the 
hoe or the plow, or built permanent houses in 
which to live. They were by nature opposed to 
manual labor. Squaws were made to do all the 
work, while Indian men hunted and did the 
fighting. The Missionaries could see but little 
hope of Christianizing, unless they could in- 
duce them to adopt civilized customs. 

It was right there that the breach between 
the Indians and the Missionaries began to 
widen. They were willing to accept a religion 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 219 

which did not interfere with savage customs, 
which had become a part of their lives. It was 
the custom of the Hudson Bay Company, by 
giving modest bribes, to win over any unruly 
chief. It was the best way to hold power; but 
the Missionaries held the tribes which they 
served up to a higher standard of morals. 

The Cayuse Indians made a foray upon a 
weaker tribe, and levied on their stock in pay- 
ment for some imaginary debt. Dr. Whitman 
gave the Chiefs a reprimand, and called it thiev- 
ing, and demanded that they send back every- 
thing they had taken. The Indians grew very 
angry in being thus reminded of their sins. 

We mention these little incidents as illustra- 
tions of the strained conditions which speedily 
made their appearance in the government of the 
Indians, and made it easy work for the mischief 
makers and criminals, later on. It was the 
boast of English authors that " The English 
people got along with Indians much better 
than Americans." This seems to be true, and it 
comes from the fact that they did not antagonize 
savage customs. As long as their savage subjects 
filled the treasury of the Hudson Bay Company, 
they cared little for aught else. As a matter of 
policy and self defense, they treated them hon- 
estly and fairly in all business transactions. 
They were in full sympathy with the Indians in 
their demand to keep out white immigration, and 



220 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

keep the entire land for fur-bearing animals and 
savage life. 

Dr. Whitman's famous ride to the States in the 
Winter of 1842-43, and his piloting the large immi- 
gration of American settlers in 1843, made him a 
marked man, both with the Indians and the 
Hudson Bay Company. When the Treaty was 
signed in 1846, and England lost Oregon, Whit- 
man was doubtless from that hour a doomed 
man. Both the Hudson Bay Company and the 
Indians well knew who was responsible. 

First, "The great white haired Chief," Dr. 
McLoughlin, was sacrificed because he was a 
friend of Whitman and the Missionaries. There 
was no other reason. If Dr. McLoughlin could 
have been induced to treat the Protestant Mis- 
sionaries as he treated the American fur traders, 
his English Company would have been delighted 
to have retained him as Chief Factor for life. 
But with them it was a crime to show kindness 
to a Protestant Missionary, and thus foster 
American interests. If McLoughlin had not 
resigned and got out of the way, he would 
doubtless have lost his life by the hands of an 
assassin. 

The Treaty was signed and proclaimed 
August 6th, 1846, and the massacre did not occur 
until the 29th of November, 1847. In those 
days the news moved slowly and the results, and 
the knowledge that England and the Hudson 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 221 

Bay Company had lost all, did not reach the 
outposts along the Columbia until late in the 
Spring of 1847. If the English and Hudson 
Bay Company had nothing to do in fanning the 
flame of Indian anger, it was because they had 
changed and reformed their methods. How 
much or how little they worked through the 
cunning and duplicity of Jesuit Priests has never 
been demonstrated. After the Revolutionary 
War, England never lost an opportunity to incite 
the Indians upon our Northern frontier to 
make savage assaults. Her humane Statesmen 
denounced her work as uncivilized and unchristian. 

General Washington, in a published letter to 
John Jay, in 1794, said: "There does not remain 
a doubt in the minds of any well-informed per- 
son in this country, not shut against conviction, 
that all the difficulties we encounter with the 
Indians, their hostilities, the murders of helpless 
women and children along our frontiers, result 
from the conduct of the agents of Great Britain 
in this country." 

At no time then had the English as much 
reason for anger at American success and pros- 
perity as in the case of Oregon, where a great 
organization, which has been for well-nigh half a 
century in supreme control, was now compelled 
to move on. To have shown no resentment 
would have been unlike the representatives of 
England in the days of Washington, 



222 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

Undoubtedly the sickness of the Indians, that 
year, and the charge that the Americans had 
introduced the disease to kill the Indians off 
and get their land, was a powerful agent in 
winning over to the murderers many who were 
still friendly to the Missionaries. The Indians 
had fallen from their high mark of honesty of 
which Mrs. Whitman in her diary, years before, 
boasted, and had invaded the melon patch and 
stolen melons, so that the Indians who ate them 
were temporarily made sick. With their 
superstitious ideas they called it "conjuring the 
melon," and the incident was used effectually to 
excite hostilities. 

There is no evidence that white men directly 
instigated the massacre or took a part in its 
horrors. While there is evidence of a bitter 
animosity existing among the Jesuit Priests 
toward the Protestant Missionaries, and their 
defense of the open charges made against them 
is lame; yet the historical facts are not sufficient 
to lay the blame upon them. 

Nor is it necessary to hold the leading offi- 
cials of the Hudson Bay Company responsible 
for the crime as co-conspirators. There are 
always hangers-on and irresponsible parties who 
stand ready to do the villian's work. 

The leader of the massacre was the half 
breed, Joe Lewis, whose greatest accomplishment 
was lying. He seems to have brought the con- 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 223 

spiracy up to the killing point by his falsehoods. 
He was a half Canadian and came to Oregon 
in company with a band of priests and strangely 
enough, dropped down upon Dr. Whitman and 
by him was clothed and fed for many months. 
The Doctor soon learned his real character and 
how he was trying to breed distrust among the 
Indians. Dr. Whitman got him the position of 
teamster in a wagon train for the Willamette, 
and expressed a hope that he was clear of him. 
But Joe deserted his post and returned to Waii- 
latpui, and as events showed, was guided by some 
unseen power in the carrying out of the plans 
of the murderers. 

To believe that he conceived it, or that the 
incentives to the execution of the diabolism 
rested alone with the Indians, is to tax even the 
credulous. They were simply the direct agents, 
and were, doubtless, as has been said, wrought 
up to the crime through superstitions in regard 
to Dr. Whitman's responsibility for the prevail- 
ing sickness, which had caused many deaths 
among the Indians. For all the years to come, 
the readers of history will weigh the facts for 
themselves, and continue to place the responsi- 
bility upon this and that cause ; but, for a safe 
standing point, will always have to drop back 
upon the fact that it was the " irrepressible con- 
flict" between civilization and savagery, between 
Christianity and heathenism, backed up by 



224 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

national antagonisms, which had many times 
before engendered bad spirit. 

It has been the history of the first settlement 
of every State of the Union, more or less, from 
the landing upon Plymouth Rock up to the 
tragedy at Waiilatpui. Only it seems in the case 
of the massacre at the Whitman Mission, to be 
more cold-blooded and atrocious, in the fact, 
that those killed had spent the best years of 
their lives in the service of the murderers. 

Those who had received the largest favors 
and the most kindness from the Doctor and his 
good wife, were active leaders in the great crime. 
The Rev. H. H. Spalding, in a letter to the 
parents of Mrs. Whitman, dated April 6, 1848, 
gives a clear, concise account of the great 
tragedy. 

He says : " They were inhumanly butchered 
by their own, up to the last moment, beloved 
Indians, for whom their warm Christian hearts 
had prayed for eleven years, and their unwearied 
hands had administered to their every want in 
sickness and distress, and had bestowed unnum- 
bered blessings ; who claimed to be, and were 
considered, in a high state of civilization and 
Christianity. Some of them were members of 
our Church ; others, candidates for admission ; 
some of them adherents of the Catholic Church; 
all praying Indians. 

They were, doubtless, urged on to the dread- 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 225 

ful deed by foreign influences, which we have 
felt coming in upon us like a devastating flood 
for the last three or four years ; and we have 
begged the authors, with tears in our eyes, to 
desist, not so much on account of our own lives 
and property, but for the sake of those coming, 
and the safety of those already in the country. 
But the authors thought none would be injured 
but the hated Missionaries — the devoted heretics; 
and the work of Hell was urged on, and has 
ended, not only in the death of three Mission- 
aries, the ruin of our Mission, but in a bloody war 
with the settlements, which may end in the mas- 
sacre of every adult." 

"The massacre took place on the fatal 29th of 
November last, commencing at half-past one. 
Fourteen persons were murdered first and last ; 
nine the first day. Five men escaped from the 
Station, three in a most wonderful manner, one 
of whom was the trembling writer, with whom, I 
know, you will unite in praising God for deliver- 
ing even one." 

" The names and places of the slain are as fol- 
lows : The two precious names already given — 
my hand refuses to write them again ; Mr. Rogers, 
young man, teacher of our Mission school in 
the winter of '46, who since then has been aid- 
ing us in our Mission work, and studying for the 
ministry, with a view to be ordained and join our 
Mission ; John and Francis Sager, the two eldest 

15 



226 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

of the orphan family, ages 17 and 15 ; Mr. Kim- 
ball, of Laporte, Indiana, killed the second day, 
left a widow and five children ; Mr. Saunders, of 
Oskaloosa, Iowa, left a widow and five children ; 
Mr. Hall, of Missouri, escaped to Fort Walla 
Walla, was refused protection, put over the 
Columbia River, killed by the W T alla Wallas, left 
a widow and five children ; Mr. Marsh, of Mis- 
souri, left a son grown and young daughter ; Mr. 
Hoffman, of Elmira, New York; Mr. Gillan, of 
Oskaloosa, Iowa ; Mr. Sails, of the latter place; 
Mr. Bewley, of Missouri. The two last, were 
dragged from sick beds, eight days after the first 
massacre, and butchered ; Mr. Young, killed the 
second day. The last five were unmarried men." 
"Forty women and children fell captives into 
the hands of the murderers, among them my own 
beloved daughter, Eliza, ten years old. Three 
of the captive children soon died, left without 
parental care, two of them your dear Narcissa's 
adopted children. The young women were 
dragged from the house by night, and beastly 
treated. Three of them were forced to become 
wives of the murderers of their parents, who often 
boasted of the deed, to taunt their victims." 
Continuing the narrative Mr. Spalding says: 
" Monday morning the Doctor assisted in bury- 
ing an Indian; returned to the house and was 
reading ; several Indians, as usual, were in the 
house; one sat down by him to attract his atten- 



HOW MARCUS. WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 227 

tion by asking for medicine; another came be- 
hind him with tomahawk concealed under his 
blanket and with two blows in the back of the 
head, brought him to the floor senseless, prob- 
ably, but not lifeless; soon after Telaukaikt, a 
candidate for admission in our Church, and who 
was receiving unnumbered favors every day from 
Brother and Sister Whitman, came in and took 
particular pains to cut and beat his face and cut 
his throat; but he still lingered till near night." 

"As soon as the firing commenced at the 
different places, Mrs. Hayes ran in and assisted 
Sister Whitman in taking the Doctor from the 
kitchen to the sitting-room and placed him upon 
the settee. This was before his face was cut. 
His dear wife bent over him and mingled her 
flowing tears with his precious blood. It was all 
she could do. They were her last tears. To 
whatever she said, he would reply 'no' in a whis- 
per, probably not sensible." 

"John Sager, who was sitting by the Doctor 
when he received the first blow, drew his pistol, but 
his arm was seized, the room filling with Indians, 
and his head was cut to pieces. He lingered till 
near night. Mr. Rogers, attacked at the water, 
escaped with a broken arm and wound in the 
head, and rushing into the house, shut the door. 
The Indians seemed to have left the house now 
to assist in murdering others. Mr. Kimball, with 
a broken arm, rushed in; both secreted them- 
selves upstairs." 



228 HOW MARCUS' WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

"Sister Whitman in anguish, now bending 
over her dying husband and now over the sick; 
now comforting the flying, screaming children, 
was passing by the window, when she received 
the first shot in her right breast, and fell to the 
floor. She immediately arose and kneeled by 
the settee on which lay her bleeding husband, 
and in humble prayer commended her soul to 
God, and prayed for her dear children who were 
about to be made a second time orphans and to 
fall into the hands of her direct murderers. I 
am certain she prayed for her murderers, too. 
She now went into the chamber with Mrs. Hayes, 
Miss Bewley, Catharine, and the sick children. 
They remained till near night." 

"In the meantime the doors and windows 
were broken in and the Indians entered and 
commenced plundering, but they feared to go 
into the chamber. They called for Sister Whit- 
man and Brother Rogers to come down and 
promised they should not be hurt. This prom- 
ise was often repeated, and they came down. 
Mrs. Whitman faint with the loss of blood, was 
carried on a settee to the door by Brother Rog- 
ers and Miss Bewley." 

"Every corner of the room was crowded with 
Indians having their guns ready to fire. The 
children had been brought down and huddled 
together to be shot. Eliza was one. Here they 
had stood for a long time surrounded by guns 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 229 

pointed at their breasts. She often heard the 
cry "Shall we shoot?" and her blood became 
cold, she says, and she fell upon the floor. But 
now the order was given, "Do not shoot the 
children," as the settee passed by the children, 
over the bleeding, dying body of John." 

"Fatal moment! The settee advanced about 
its length from the door, when the guns were 
discharged from without and within, the powder 
actually burning the faces of the children. 
Brother Rogers raised his hand and cried, " My 
God," and fell upon his face, pierced with many 
balls. But he fell not alone. An equal number 
of the deadly weapons were leveled at the settee 
and the discharge had been deadly. She 
groaned, and lingered for some time in great 
agony." 

"Two of the humane Indians threw their 
blankets over the little children huddled to- 
gether in the corner of the room, and shut out 
the sight as they beat their dying victims with 
whips, and cut their faces with knives. It was 
Joe Lewis, the Canadian half-breed, that first 
shot Mrs. Whitman, but it was Tamtsaky who 
took her scalp as a trophy." 

An old Oregon friend of the author, Samuel 
Campbell, now living in Moscow, Idaho, spent 
the winter of '46 and '47 at the Whitman Mis- 
sion, and never wearied in telling of the grandly 
Christian character of Mrs. Whitman, of her 



230 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

kindness and her patience to all, whites and 
Indians alike. Every evening she delighted all 
with her singing. Her voice, after all her hard 
life, had lost none of its sweetness, nor had her 
environments in any sense soured her toward 
any of the little pleasantries of every day life. 

Says Mr. Campbell, "You can imagine my 
horror in 1849, when at Grand Ronde, old Tamt- 
saky acknowledged to me that he scalped Mrs. 
Whitman and told of her long, beautiful, silky 
hair." Soon after the United States Govern- 
ment, by order of General Lane, sent officers to 
arrest the murderers. Old Tamtsaky was killed 
at the time of the arrest and escaped the hang- 
man's rope, which was given to five of theleaders, 
after trial in Oregon City, May, 1850. The names 
of the murderers hanged were Tilwkait, Taha- 
mas, Ouiahmarsum, Klvakamus and Siahsalucus. 

The Rev. Cushing Eejlssays, "The day before 
the massacre, Istikus, a firm friend of Dr. Whit- 
man, told him of the threats against his life, and 
advised him to 'go away ui;til my people have 
better hearts.' He reached home from the 
lodge of Istikus late in the night, but visited his 
sick before retiring. Then he told Mrs. Whitman 
the words of Istikus. Knowing how true a 
friend Istikus was, and his great courage, the 
situation became more perilous in the estimation 
of both, than ever before. Mrs. Whitman was so 
affected by it that she remained in her room, and 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 231 

one of the children, who took her breakfast up 
to her room, found her weeping. The Doctor 
went about his work as usual, but told some of 
his associates that if it were possible to do so, he 
would remove all the family to a place of safety. 
It is the first time he ever seems to have been 
alarmed, or thought it possible that his Indians 
would attempt such a crime." 

Rev. Mr. Eells gives a detailed account of the 
massacre and its horrors, but in this connection 
we only desire to give the reader a clear view 
without dwelling upon its atrocities. "The toma- 
hawk with which Dr. Whitman was killed, was 
presented to the Cayuse Indians by the Black- 
feet upon some great occasion; and was pre- 
served by the Cayuse as a memorable relic long 
after the hanging of the Chiefs. In the Yakima 
War it passed to another tribe, and the Chief who 
owned it was killed; an Indian agent, Logan, got 
possession of it and presented it to the Sanitary 
Society during the Civil War. A subscription of 
one hundred dollars was raised and it was pre- 
sented to the Legislature of Oregon, and is pre- 
served among the archives of the State." 

This narrative would be incomplete without 
recording the prompt action of the Hudson Bay 
Company officers in coming to the relief of the 
captive women and children. As soon as Chief 
Factor Ogden heard of it, he lost no time in re- 
pairing to the scene, reaching Walla Walla 



232 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

December 12th. In about two weeks he suc- 
ceeded in ransoming all the captives for blank- 
ets, shirts, guns, ammunition and tobacco, and at 
an expense of $500. No other man in the Terri- 
tory, and no army that could have been mustered, 
could have done it. 

The Americans in Oregon promptly mus- 
tered and attacked the Indians, who retreated to 
the territory of a different tribe. But the mur- 
derers and leaders among the Indians were not 
arrested until nearly two years after the crime. 

While some have charged that the officials of 
the Hudson Bay Company could have averted 
the massacre, this is only an opinion. Their hu- 
mane and prompt act in releasing the captive 
women and children from worse than death, was 
worthy of it, and has received the strongest 
words of praise. 

Thus was ended disastrously the work of the 
American Board which had given such large 
promise for eleven years. While its greatest 
achievement was not in saving savage souls, but 
in being largely instrumental in peacefully sav- 
ing three great States to the American Union, 
yet there is good evidence, years after the mas- 
sacre, that the labors of the Missionaries had 
not been in vain. After the Treaty of 1855, seven 
years after the massacre, General Joel Palmer, 
who was one of the Council, says, " Forty-five 
Cayuse and one thousand Nez Perces have kept 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 233 

up regular family and public worship, singing 
from the Nez Perces Hymn Book and reading 
the Gospel of Matthew, translated into Nez 
Perces, the work of Dr. and Mrs. Spalding." 

Says General Barloe, " Many of them showed 
surprising evidences of piety, especially Tim- 
othy, who was their regular and faithful preacher 
during all these years." Among the Cayuse, 
old Istikus, as long as he lived, rang his bell 
every Sabbath and called his little band together 
for worship." 

Twelve years after leaving his Mission, Rev. 
Mr. Spalding returned to his people and found 
the Tribe had kept up the form of worship all the 
years since. Upon opening a school, it was at 
once crowded with children, and even old men 
and women, with failing eyesight, insisted upon 
being taught; and the interest did not flag until 
the failing health of Mr. Spalding forced him to 
give up his work. The Rev. Dr. Eells' experi- 
ence was much the same; all going to prove that 
the early work of the American Board was not 
fruitless in good, and emphasizing the fact that 
good words and work are never wholly lost, and 
their power only will be known when the final 
summing up is made. 

There have been few great men that have 
not felt the stings of criticism and misrepresen- 
tation. The wholly unselfish life of Dr. Marcus 
Whitman, from his young manhood to the day 



234 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

of his death, it would seem, ought to have 
shielded him from this class, but it did not. In 
justice to his contemporaries, however, it is due 
to say, every one of them, of all Denominations 
except one, was his friend and defender. 

That one man was a French Jesuit Priest, by 
the name of J. B. A. Brouillett. He was Acting 
Bishop among the Indians, of a tribe near to the 
Cayuse, where Dr. Whitman had labored for 
eleven years, and where he penshed in 1847. 
After the massacre, there were some grave 
charges made against Brouillett, and in 1853 he 
wrote a pamphlet, entitled, "Protestantism in 
Oregon," in which he made a vicious attack upon 
the dead Whitman, and the living Dr. Spalding, 
and the other Protestant Missionariesof the Am- 
erican Board. 

It naturally called out some very pointed re- 
joinders, yet attracted but little attention from 
the Christian world. Patriotic American Catho- 
lics took but little stock in the clamor of the 
French Priest, and the matter was in a fair way 
to be forgotten, when interest was suddenly re- 
newed in the subject by the appearance of an 
executive document, No. 38, 35th Congress, 1st 
Session, signed J. Ross Browne, Commissioner of 
Indian Affairs, and dated at San Francisco, De- 
cember 4, 1867, which contained a few sentences 
from J. Ross Browne and all of the Brouillett 
pamphlet. 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 235 

The idea of getting so slanderous a paper 
published as an official public document by the 
United States Congress, was an unheard-of chal- 
lenge that called for a reply. And it came 
promptly and pointedly. From all parts of the 
Country, Members of Congress were flooded with 
letters to find out how such a thing could be ac- 
complished. None of them seemed able to 
answer. But the mischief was done and many 
of them expressed a willingness to help undo it. 

The Old School and New School, and the 
United Presbyterians in their Presbyteries, re- 
sented the outrage, both in the Far West and in 
the East, and none more vigorously than did 
that of the Illinois Presbytery at the meeting in 
Chicago in 187 1. The Methodists and Baptists 
and Congregational Conferences in Oregon and 
Washington, cordially united in the work, and 
demanded that an address, defending the Mis- 
sionaries and the American Board, should be 
printed just as conspicuously to the World as 
had been the falsehoods of Brouillett. 

The Presbyterian General Assembly at Chi- 
cago, May 18, 1871, led by the Rev. F. A. Noble 
summed up the case under seven different counts 
of falsehoods, and demanded that Congress 
should, in simple justice, publish them in vindica- 
tion of the Protestant Church. The Oregon 
Presbytery was still more positive and aggressive 
and made their specifications under twelve heads. 



236 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

The Congregationalists and the Methodists in 
Oregon were equally pointed and positive. It 
resulted in "A Committee on Protestantism in 
Oregon," drawing up a reply. 

In this they say: "The object of Brouillett's 
pamphlet appears to be to exculpate the real 
instigators of that terrible tragedy, the massa- 
cre at Waiilatpui, and to cast the blame upon the 
Protestant Missionaries who were the victims." 
They go on to declare that the paper "Is full of 
glaring and infamous falsehoods," and give their 
reasons concisely, and wholly exhonorate Dr. 
Whitman from all blame. 

They close their address thus: "With these 
facts before us, we would unite with all lovers of 
truth and justice, in earnestly petitioning Con- 
gress, as far as possible, to rectify the evils 
which have resulted from the publication, as a 
Congressional Document, of the slanders of J 
Ross Browne, and thus lift the cloud of darkness 
that " Hangs over the memory of the righteous 
dead and extend equal justice to those who sur- 
vive." The Rev. Dr. Spalding prepared the 
matter and it was introduced through Secretary 
Columbus Delano, and the Indian Agent, N. B. 
Meacham, and passed Congress as " Ex-Docu- 
ment No. 37 of the 41st Congress." 

Forty thousand copies were ordered printed, 
the same as of Brouillett's pamphlet. It is 
reported that less than fifty copies ever reached 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 237 

the public. They mysteriously disappeared, and 
no one ever learned and made public the man- 
ner in which it was done. 

But the incident developed the fact, that the 
whole patriotic Christian people unitedly 
defended Whitman from the charges made. 



CHAPTER XII. 



BIOGRAPHICAL. — DR. MARCUS WHITMAN AND DR. JOHN 
MCLOUGHLIN. 



Dr. Marcus Whitman was a direct descendant 
of John Whitman of Weymouth, who came from 
England in the ship "Confidence," December, 
1638. Of him it is recorded that he feared God, 
hated covetousness and did good continually all 
the days of a long life. 

Of the parents of Dr. Whitman, but little has 
been written. His father, Beza Whitman, was 
born in Bridgewater, Connecticut, May 13, 1775. 
In March, 1797, he married Alice Green, of 
Mumford, Connecticut. Two years later, with 
all of their worldly goods packed in an ox-cart, 
they moved to Rushville, . New York. Mrs. 
Whitman making a large part of the tedious 
journey on foot, carrying her one year old babe 
in her arms. 

Settled in their new home, with Indians for near 
neighbors and wilderness all about them, they 

238 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 239 

began the struggle for life, and though no great 
success rewarded their efforts, it is known that 
their doors always swung open to the needy and 
their hands ministered to the sick. 

Mr. Whitman died April 7, 18 10, at the early 
age of 35 years, leaving his young wife to rear 
their family of four sons and one daughter. 
Mrs. Whitman, though not a professing Chris- 
tian, was a woman of much energy and great 
endurance which, combined with strong Chris- 
tian principle, enabled her to look well to the 
ways of her household. She lived to see every 
member of it an active Christian. She died 
Sept. 6th, 1857, aged 79, and was buried beside 
her husband near Rushville, New York. 

Dr. Marcus was her second son, and inherited 
from her a strong frame and great endurance. 
After his father's death he was sent to his pater- 
nal grandfather, Samuel Whitman, of Plainfield, 
Massachusetts, where he remained ten years for 
training and education. There he received a 
liberal training in the best schools the place 
afforded, supplemented by a thorough course in 
Latin, and more advanced studies under the 
minister of the place. 

We know little of the boyhood spent there, 
as we should know little of the whole life of 
Whitman, had not others lived to tell it, for he 
neither told or wrote of it; he was too modest 
and too busy for that. But we know it was the 



240 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

usual life of the Yankee boy, to bring the cows 
and milk them, to cut the wood, and later to 
plow and sow the fields, as we afterwards find he 
knew how to do all these things. The strong, 
sturdy boy of ceaseless activity and indomitable 
will who loved hunting and exploring, and a 
touch of wild life, must have sometimes given 
his old grandfather a trial of his mettle, but on 
the whole no doubt, he was a great comfort and 
help to his declining years. 

After the death of his grandfather, he 
returned to the home of his mother in Rushville. 
There he became a member of the Congrega- 
tional church at the age of nineteen, and it is 
said was very desirous of studying for the minis- 
try, but by a long illness, and the persuasion of 
friends, was turned from his purpose to the 
study of medicine. 

He took a three years course, and graduated 
at Fairfield, in 1824. He first went to Canada, 
where he practiced his profession for four years, 
then came back to his home, determined again 
to take up the study for the ministry, but was 
again frustrated in his design, and practiced his 
profession four years more in Wheeler, N. Y., 
where he was a member and an elder in the 
Presbyterian Church. He and a brother also 
owned a saw-mill near there, where he assisted 
in his spare hours, and so learned another trade 
that was most useful to him in later life. In 
fact, as we see his environments in his Mission 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 241 

Station in Oregon, these hard lessons of his 
earlier years seem to have been, in the best sense 
of the word, educational. 

With but little help, he opened up and culti- 
vated a great farm, and built a grist-mill and a 
saw-mill, and when his grist-mill was burned, 
built another, and, at the same time, attended to 
his professional duties that covered a wide dis- 
trict. It was the wonder of every visitor to the 
Mission how one man, with so few helpers, 
accomplished so much. At the time of the mas- 
sacre, the main building of the Mission was one 
hundred feet in the front, with an L, running 
back seventy feet, and part of it two stories 
high. Every visitor remarked on the cleanli- 
ness and comfort and thrift which everywhere 
appeared. 

There are men who, with great incentives, 
have accomplished great things, but were utter 
failures when it came to practical, every day 
duties. Dr. Whitman, with a genius to conceive, 
and the will and energy to carry out the most 
difficult and daring undertaking, was just as 
faithful and efficient in the little things that 
made up the comforts of his wilderness home. 
Seeing these grand results — the commodious 
house, the increase in the herds and the stacks 
of grain — seems to have only angered his lazy, 
thriftless Indians, and they began to make 
demands for a division of his wealth. 

16 



242 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

Dr. Whitman has been accused of holding his 
Indians to a too strict moral accountability; that 
it would have been wiser to have been more 
lenient, and winked at, rather than denounced, 
some of their savage ways. Those who have 
carefully studied the man, know how impossible 
it would have been for him, in any seeming way, 
to condone a crime, or to purchase peace with 
the criminal by a bribe. This was the method 
of the Hudson Bay Company, and was, doubtless 
the cheap way. 

By a series of events and environments, he 
seems to have been trained much as Moses was, 
but with wholly different surroundings from those 
of the great Lawgiver, whose first training was in 
the Royal Court and the schools of Egypt; then 
in its army; then an outcast, and as a shepherd, 
guiding his flocks, and finding springs and pas- 
turage in the Land where, one day, he was to 
lead his People. 

King David is another man made strong in 
the school of preparation. As he watched his 
flocks on the Judean hills, he fought the lion 
and the bear, and so was not afraid to meet 
and fight a giant, who defied the armies of the 
living God. It was there, under the stars, that 
he practiced music to quiet a mad king, and was 
educated into a fitness to organize the great 
choirs, and furnish the grand anthems for the 
temple worship. After this, in self-defense, 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 243 

he became the commander of lawless bands of 
men, and so was trained to command the armies 
of Israel. 

So it has been in our own Nation, with Wash- 
ington and Lincoln, and Grant and Garfield; 
they had to pass through many hardships, and 
receive a many sided training before they were 
fitted for the greater work to which they were 
called. So it was, this strong, conscientious, 
somewhat restless young man was being trained 
for the life that was to follow. The farmer boy, 
planting and reaping, the millwright planning 
and building, the country doctor on his long, 
lonely rides, the religious teacher who must 
oversee the physical and spiritual wants of his 
fellow church members, all were needed in the 
larger life for which he was longing and look- 
ing, when the sad appeal for the "Book of Life" 
came from the Indian Chiefs who had come so 
far, and failed to find it. His immediate and 
hearty response was, "Here am I, send me!" 

Dr. Marcus Whitman, judged by his life as a 
Missionary, must ever be given due credit; for 
no man ever gave evidence of greater devotion 
to the work he found to do. He was doubtless 
excelled as a teacher of the Indians by many of 
his co-laborers. He was not, perhaps, even emi- 
nent as a teacher. His great reputation and the 
honor due him, does not rest upon such a claim, 
but upon his wisdom in seeing the future of the 



244 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

Great West, and his heroic rescue of the land 
from a foreign rule. That he heard a call to 
the duty from a higher source than any earthly 
potentate, none but the skeptic will doubt. The 
act stands out clear and bold and strong, as one 
of the finest instances of unselfish patriotism re- 
corded in all history. 

DR. JOHN McLOUGHLIN. 

Any sketch of pioneer Oregon would be in- 
complete without an honorable mention of Dr. 
John McLoughlin. He was the Chief Factor of 
the Hudson Bay Company, an organization ini- 
mical to American interests, both for pecuniary 
and political reasons, and like Whitman, has 
been maligned and misunderstood. As the lead- 
ing spirit, during all the stages of pioneer life, 
his life and acts have an importance second to 
none. Nothing could have been more important 
for the comfort and peace of the Missionaries 
than to have had a man as Supreme Ruler of 
Oregon, with so keen a sense of justice, as had 
Dr. McLoughlin. 

Physically he was a fine specimen or a man. 
He was six feet, four inches, and well propor- 
tioned. His bushy white hair and massive 
beard, caused the Indians everywhere to call 
him, the "Great White Head Chief." 

He was born in 1784, and was eighteen years 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 245 

older than Dr. Whitman. He entered the 
Northwestern Fur Company's service in 1800. 
He afterwards studied medicine, and for a time 
practiced his profession, but his fine business 
abilities were so apparent, that in 1824 we find 
him at the head of affairs in Oregon. His 
power over the rough men in the employ of the 
Company, and the savage tribes who filled their 
coffers with wealth, was so complete as to be 
phenomenal. 

In many of the sketches we have shown that 
his kindness to the pioneer Missionaries in an- 
other and a higher sense, proved his manhood. 
To obey the orders of his Company, and still re- 
main a humane man, was something that re- 
quired tact that few men could have brought to 
bear as well as Dr. McLoughlin. While he did 
slaughter, financially speaking, traders and fur 
gatherers right and left, and did his best to serve 
the pecuniary interests of his great monopoly, 
he drew the line there, and was the friend and 
the helper of the Missionaries. 

If the reader could glance through Mrs. Whit- 
man's diary upon t^e very opening week of her 
arrival in Oregon, there would not be found any- 
thing but words of kindness and gratitude to Dr. 
McLoughlin. In justice to his Company, to which 
he was always loyal, he pushed the Methodist 
Missions far up the Willamette, and those of the 
American Board three hundred miles in another 



248 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

direction. But at the same time he was a friend 
and brother and advisor, and anything he had 
was at their service, whether they had money or 
not. 

After the immigration in 1842, and the larger 
immigration led by Whitman in 1843, the Com- 
pany in England became alarmed and sent out 
spies — Messrs. Park, Vavasaur and Peel, who 
were enjoined to find out whether McLoughlin 
was loyal to British interests. After many months 
spent in studying the situation, th v ir adverse re- 
port is easily inferred from the fact that Dr. Mc- 
Loughlin was ordered to report to headquarters. 
The full history of that secret investigation has 
never yet been revealed, but when it is, the whole 
blame will be found resting upon Whitman and 
his Missionary co-workers, who wrested the land 
from English rule, and that Dr. McLoughlin 
aided them to success. 

When the charge of " Friendship to the 
Missionaries," was made, the old Doctor flared 
up and replied, " What would you have? Would 
you have me turn the cold shoulder on the men 
of God who came to do that for the Indians 
which this Company has neglected to do? If we 
had not helped the immigrants in '42 and '43 and 
'44, and relieved their necessities, Fort Van- 
couver would have been destroyed and the world 
would have treated us as our inhuman conduct 
deserved; every officer of the Company, from 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 24? 

Governor down, would have been covered with 
obloquy, and the Company's business ruined!" 

But it all resulted in the resignation of Dr. 
McLoughlin. The injustice he received at the 
hands of Americans afterward, is deeply to be 
regretted, and it is greatly to the credit of the 
thinking people of the State of Oregon that they 
have done their best to remedy the wrong. At 
many times, and in a multitude of ways, Dr. Mc- 
Loughlin, by his kindness to the Misionaries, 
won for himself the gratitude of thinking Amer- 
icans in all the years to come. With a bad man 
in his place as Chief Factor, the old Missionaries 
would have found life in Oregon well-nigh un- 
bearable. While true to the exclusive and self- 
ish interests of the great monopoly he served, 
he yet refused to resort to any form of unmanli- 
ness. 

After his abuse by the English Company and 
his severance of all connection with it, he settled 
at Oregon City and lived and died an American 
citizen. The tongue of slander was freely 
wagged against him, and his declining years 
were made miserable by unthinking Americans 
and revengeful Englishmen. His property, of 
which he had been deprived, was returned to his 
heirs, and to-day his memory is cherished as 
among Oregon's benefactors. A fine oil painting 
of Dr. McLoughlin was secured and paid for by 
the old pioneers and presented to the State. 



248 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

The Hon. John Minto, in making the address 
at the hanging of the picture, closed with these 
words: 

"In this sad summary of such a life as Dr. 
McLoughlin's, there is a statement that merits 
our attention, which, if ever proven true, and no 
man who ever knew Dr. McLoughlin will doubt 
that he believed it true, namely, that he pre- 
vented war between Great Britain and the United 
States, will show that two of the greatest Nations 
on this Earth owe him a debt of gratitude, and 
that Oregon, in particular, is doubly bound to 
him as a public benefactor. British state papers 
may some day prove all this." 

"It is now twenty-six years since the Legisla- 
tive Assembly of the State of Oregon, so far as 
restoration of property to Dr. McLoughlin's 
family could undo the wrong of Oregon's Land 
Bill, gave gladness to the heart of every Oregon 
Pioneer worthy of the name. All of them yet 
living, now know that, good man as they believed 
him, he was better than they knew. They see 
him now, after the strife and jealousies of race, 
National, business, and sectarian interests are 
allayed, standing in the center of all these causes 
of contention — a position in which to please all 
parties was impossible, to " Maintain which, only 
a good man could bear with patience" — and 
they have adopted this means of conveying their 
appreciation of this great forbearance and 




DR. JOHN MCLOUGHL1N, 
Chief Factor of Hudson Bay Co., at Fort Walla Walla. 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 249 

patient endurance, combined with his generous 
conduct." 

"Looking, then, at this line of action in the 
light of the merest glimpses of history, known to 
be true by witnesses living, can any honest man 
wonder that the pioneers of Oregon, who have 
eaten the salt of this man's hospitality, who have 
been the eye-witnesses to his brave care for 
humanity, and participators in his generous aid, 
are unwilling to go to their graves in silence — 
which would imply base ingratitude — a silence 
which would be eloquent with falsehood ?" 

" Governor and Representatives of Oregon : 
In recognition of the worthy manner in which Dr. 
John McLoughlin filled his trying and respon- 
sible position, in the heartfelt glow of a grateful 
remembrance of his humane and noble conduct 
to them, the Oregon Pioneers leave this portait 
with you, hoping that their descendants will not 
forget the friend of their fathers, and trusting 
that this gift of the men and women who led the 
advance which has planted thirty thousand rifles 
in the Valley of the Columbia, and three hun- 
dred thousand, when needed, in the National 
Domain, facing the Pacific Ocean, will be deemed 
worthy of a place in your halls." 



CHAPTER XIII. 



WHITMAN SEMINARY AND COLLEGE. 



Many institutions of learning have been 
erected and endowed by the generosity of the 
the rich, but Whitman Seminary and College had 
its foundation laid in faith and prayer. Viewed 
from a worldly standpoint, backed only by a 
poor Missionary, whose possessions could be 
packed upon the back of a mule, the outlook did 
not seem promising. During all the years of 
his Missionary service in Oregon, none knew 
better the value of the patriotic Christian service 
of Dr. and Mrs. Whitman, than did the Rever- 
end Dr. Cushing Eells and his good wife. 
After the massacre, Dr. Eells, and all his co- 
workers were moved under military escort to the 
Willamette, but he writes: 

"My eyes were constantly turned east of the 
Cascade Range, a region I have given the best 
years of my life to." 

It was not until 1859 when the country was 

250 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 251 

declared open that he visited Walla Walla, and 
stood at the "Great grave of Dr. Whitman and 
his wife." Standing there upon the consecrated 
spot, he says: 

"I believe that the power of the Hignest 
came upon me." And there he solemnly vowed 
that he would do something to honor the Chris- 
tian martyrs whose remains rested in that grave. 
He says: "I felt as though if Dr. Whitman were 
alive, he would prefer a high school for the bene- 
fit of both sexes, rather than a monument of 
marble." 

He pondered the subject and upon reaching 
home, sought the advice of the Congrega- 
tional Association. The subject was carefully 
canvassed by those who well knew all the sad 
history, and the following note was entered upon 
the record. 

"In the judgment of this Association, the con- 
templated purpose of Brother C. Eells to remove 
to Waiilatpui, to establish a Christian School at 
that place, to be called the Whitman Seminary, 
in memory of the noble deeds and great works 
and the fulfillment of the benevolent plans of the 
late lamented Dr. Whitman and his wife: And 
his further purpose to act as Home Missionary 
in the Walla Walla Valley, meets our cordial 
approbation and shall receive our earnest sup- 
port." 

Dr. Eells at once resigned from the Tualitin 



252 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

Academy, where he was then teaching, and in 
1859 and '60 obtained the charter for the 
Whitman Seminary. Dr. Eells had hoped 
to be employed by the Home Missionary 
Society, but that organization declined, as its 
object was not to build seminaries and col- 
leges, but to establish churches. He bought 
from the American Board for $1,000 the farm of 
640 acres where Dr. Whitman had toiled for 
eleven years. 

It was Dr. Eells idea to build a Seminary 
directly upon this consecrated ground, and gather 
a quiet settlement about the school. But he 
soon found that it would be better to locate the 
Seminary in the village, at that time made up cf 
five resident families and about one hundred 
men. It, however, was in sight of the "Great 
Grave." 

Here the Eells family settled down upon the 
farm for hard work to raise the funds necessary 
to erect the buildings necessary for the Semi- 
nary. He preached without compensation up 
and down the Valley upon the Sabbath, and like 
Paul, worked with his hands during the week. 
His first Summer's work on the farm brought in 
$700; enough nearly to pay three-fourths of its 
cost; thus year after year Dr. Eells and his 
faithful wife labored on and on. He plowed and 
reaped, and cut cord wood, while she made 
butter, and raised chickens and saved every 
dollar for the one grand purpose of doing honor 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 253 

to their noble friends in the " Great Grave " 
always in sight. 

Rarely in this world has there been a more 
beautiful demonstration of loyalty and friend- 
ship, than of Dr. and Mrs. Eells. They lived 
and labored on the farm for ten years, and en- 
dured all the privations and isolations common 
to such a life. An article in the "Congregation- 
alist" says: 

"Mother Eells' churn with which she made 
four hundred pounds of butter for sale, ought to 
be kept for an honored place in the cabinet of 
Whitman College." 

It was by such sacrifices that the first $4,000 
were raised to begin the buildings. Five years 
had passed after the charter was granted, be- 
fore the Seminary was located, and then only 
on paper. And this was seven years before the 
completion of the first school building; the dedi- 
cation of which occurred on October 13, 1866. 

The first principal was the Rev. P. B. Cham- 
berlain, who also organized and was first pastor 
of the Congregational Church at Walla Walla. 
In 1880, under the new impulse given to the 
work by the Rev. Dr. G. H. Atkinson, of Port- 
land, Whitman Seminary developed into Whit- 
man College. This was finally accomplished in 
1883. During that year, College Hall was erected 
at a cost of $16,000. During 1883 and 1884, in 
the same spirit he had at all times exhibited, Dr. 



254 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

Eells felt it his duty to visit New England in the 
interest of the Institution. He says: 

" It was the hardest year's work I ever did, to 
raise that sixteen thousand dollars." 

The old pioneer would much rather have cut 
cord wood or plowed his fields, if that would 
have brought in the money for his loved College. 
The Christian who reads Dr. Eells' diary during 
the closing years of his life, will easily see how 
devoted he was to the work of honoring the 
memory of the occupants of the "Great Grave." 
His diary of May 24, 1890, says: 

"The needs of Whitman College cause serious 
thought. My convictions have been that my 
efforts in its behalf were in obedience to Divine 
Will." 

June 11, 1890. " During intervals of the night 
was exercised in prayer for Whitman College. 
I am persuaded that my prayers are prevailing. 
In agony I pray for Whitman College." 

October 2nd. "Dreamed of Whitman Col- 
lege and awoke with a prayer." 

His last entry in his diary was: " I could die 
for Whitman College." 

The grand old man went to his great reward 
in June, 1892. Will the Christian people of the 
land allow such a prayer to go unanswered? 

In 1884 Mrs. N. F. Cobleigh did some very 
effective work in canvassing sections of New 
England in behalf of the College, succeeding in 
raising $8,000. 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 255 

Dr. Anderson, after his efficient labors of nine 
years, with many discouragements, resigned the 
Presidency in 1891, and the Rev. James F. Eaton, 
another scholary earnest man, assumed its duties. 
In the meantime the stuggling village of Walla 
Walla had grown into the "Garden City," and 
the demands upon such an institution had in- 
creased a hundred fold in the rapid development 
of the country in every direction. The people 
began to see the wisdom of the founder, and 
cast about for means to make the College more 
efficient. The Union Journal of Walla Walla, 
said: 

" It is our pride. It is the cap sheaf of the 
educational institutions of Walla Walla, and 
should be the pride and boast of every good 
Walla Wallan. It has a corps of exceptionally 
good instructors, under the guidance of a man 
possessing breadth of intellect, liberal education 
and an enthusiastic desire to be successful in his 
chosen field of labor, with students who rank in 
natural ability with the best product of any land. 
But it is deficient in facilities. It lacks room in 
which to grow. It lacks library and apparatus, 
the tools of education." 

President Eaton and the faculty saw this need 
and the necessity of a great effort. It was un- 
der this pressure, and the united desire of the 
friends of the College that the Rev. Stephen B. L. 
Penrose, of the "Yale band" assumed the duties 



256 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

of President in 1894, and began his plans to raise 
an endowment fund and place the College upon 
a sound financial basis, as well as to increase its 
educational facilities and requirements. 

It was the misfortune of these educators to 
enter the field for money at a time of great finan- 
cial embarassment, such as has not been experi- 
enced in many decades; but it was at the same 
time their good fortune to enlist the aid of Dr. 
D. K. Pearsons of Chicago, in the grand work 
with a generous gift of $50,000, provided that 
others could be induced to add $150,000 to it. 

With such a start and with such a man as Dr. 
Pearsons, there will be no such word as fail. He 
is a man of faith like Dr. Eells and has long 
been administering upon his own estate in wise 
and generous gifts to deserving institutions. 
With such a man to encourage other liberal 
givers, the endowment will not stop at $200,000. 
If Whitman College is to be the Yale and Har- 
vard and Chicago University of the Far West, 
it must meet with a generous response from 
liberal givers. Its name alone ought to be worth 
a million in money. When the people are edu- 
cated in Whitman history, the money will come 
and the prayers of Dr. Eells will be answered. 

The millions of people love fair play and 
honest dealing and can appreciate solid work, and 
they will learn to love the memory of the modest 
hero, and will be glad to do him honor in so 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 257 

practical a method. It will soon be half a cen- 
tury since Dr. Whitman and his noble wife fell 
at their post of duty at Waiilatpui. Had Dr. 
Whitman been a millionaire, a man of noble 
birth, had he been a military man or a states- 
man, his praise would have been sung upon his- 
toric pages as the praise of others has. But he 
was only a poor Missionary Doctor, who lost his 
life in the vain effort to civilize and Christianize 
savages, and an army of modern historians seem 
to have thought, as we have shown in another 
chapter, that the world would sit quietly by and 
see and applaud while they robbed him of his 
richly won honors. In that they have over- 
reached themselves. The name of Dr. Marcus 
Whitman will be honored and revered long after 
the names of his traducers have been obliterated 
and forgotten. 

It is a name with a history, which will grow 
in honor and importance as the great States he 
saved to the Union will grow into the grandeur 
they naturally assume. There is not a clearer 
page of history in all the books than that Dr. 
Whitman, under the leading of Providence, saved 
the States of Oregon, Washington and Idaho to 
the Union. There is a possibility that by a long 
and destructive war we might have held them as 
against the claims of England. There were just 
two men who prevented that war and those two 
men were Drs. Whitman and McLoughlin. The 
17 



258 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

latter indirectly by his humane and civilized 
treatment of the Missionaries when he might, 
have crushed them, and the former by his unpar- 
alleled heroism in his mid-winter ride to Wash- 
ington, and his wisdom in piloting the immigra- 
tions to Oregon just the year that he did. 

History correctly written, will truthfully say, 
"When Whitman fell at Waiilatpui, one of the 
grandest heroes of this century went to his great 
reward." The State of Washington has done well 
to name a great County to perpetuate his mem- 
ory; Dr. Eells did a noble act in founding Whit^ 
man Seminary, and the time is coming and is 
near at hand, when the young men and women 
of the Country will prize a diploma inscribed 
with the magic name of Whitman. Endow the. 
College and endow it generously. Make it 
worthy of the man whose love of Country felt 
that no task was too difficult and no danger too 
great to make him hesitate. 

After the endowment is full and complete, a 
great College Hall should be erected from a 
patriotic fund, and upon the central pillar should 
be inscribed: "Sacred to the Memory of Dr. 
Marcus and Narcissa Whitman. While lifting 
up the banner of the cross in one hand to redeem 
and save savage souls, they thought it no wrong 
to carry the flag of the country they loved in the 
other." 

There is no such thing as dividing the hon- 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 259 

ors. They are simply Whitman honors; they 
lived and labored and achieved together; the 
bride upon the plains and in the Mission home 
was a heroine scarcely second to the hero whc 
swam icy rivers, and climbed the snow covered 
mountains in 1842 and 1843, upon his patriotic 
mission. It is a work that may well engage the 
patriotic women of America; for true woman- 
hood has never had a more beautiful setting 
than in the life of Narcissa Whitman. At the 
death, by drowning, of her only child, that she 
almost idolized, she bowed humbly and said: 
"Thy Will be done!" And upon the day of 
her death, was mother to eleven helpless child- 
ren, for whose safety she prayed in her expiring 
moments. 

What an unselfish life she led. In her diary 
she says, but in no complaining mood: "Situ- 
ated as we are, our house is the Missonaries' 
tavern, and we must accommodate more or less 
all the time. We have no less than seven 
families in our two houses; we are in peculiar 
and somewhat trying circumstances; we cannot 
sell to them because we are Missionaries and not 
traders." 

And we see by the record that there were no 
less than seventy souls in the Whitman family 
the day of the massacre. 

Emerson says: " Heroism is an obedience to 
a secret impulse of individual character, and the 



260 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

chaiacteristics of genuine heroism is its persist- 
ency." 

Where was it ever more strongiy marked 
than in Dr. Whitman? We are told that "His- 
tory repeats itself." Going back upon the his- 
toric pages, one can find the best illustration of 
Dr. Whitman in faithful old Caleb. Their lives 
seem to run along similar lines. Both were sent 
to spy out the land. Both returned and made true 
and faithful reports. Both were selected for 
their great physical fitness, and for their fine 
mental and moral worth; and both proved 
among the finest specimens of unselfish man- 
hood ever recorded. Turning to the Sacred 
Record we read that a great honor was ordered 
for Caleb; not only that he was permitted to en- 
ter the promised land, but it was also understood 
by all, that he should have the choice of all the 
fair country they were to occupy. His associates 
sent with him forty years before were terribly 
afraid of "the giants," and now they had reached 
"The land of promise," and Joshua had assem- 
bled the leaders of Israel to assign them their 
places. Just notice old Caleb. Standing in view 
of the meadows and fields and orchards, loaded 
with their rich clusters of purple grapes, every- 
body expected he would select the best, for they 
knew that it was both promised and he deserved 
it; but Caleb, lifting up his voice so that all could 
hear, said: 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 261 

" Lo, I am this day four score and five years 
old. As yet I am as strong this day as I was in 
the day that Moses sent me; as my strength was 
then, even so is my strength now for war, both 
to go out and to come in. Now, therefore, give 
me this mountain whereof the Lord spoke in 
that day; for thou heardest in that day how the 
Anakims were there, and that the cities were 
great and fenced. If so be, the Lord will be 
with me, then I shall be able to drive them out 
as the Lord said." 

Noble, unselfish old Caleb! And how won- 
derfully like him was our hero thirty-four and a 
half centuries later. It mattered not that he 
had saved a great country, twice as large as New 
York, Pennsylvania and Illinois combined, or 
thirty-two times as large as Massachusetts. It 
mattered not that it was accomplished through 
great peril and trials and sufferings that no man 
can over-estimate, he never once asked a re- 
ward. " Give me this mountain," and he went 
back to his Mission, and resumed his heavy bur- 
den, and let others gather the harvest, and " the 
clusters of purple grapes." There he was found 
at his post of duty, and met death on that fatal 
November the 29th, 1847. 

When a generous people have made the en- 
dowment complete, and built the grand Memor- 
ial Hall, they should build a monument at the 
" Great Grave" at Waiilatpui. Americans are pa- 



262 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

triotic. They build monuments to their men of 
science, to their statesmen and to their soldiers. 
It is right to do so. They are grand object les- 
sons, educating the young in patriotism and vir- 
tue and right living. The monument at no 
grave in all the land will more surely teach all 
these, than will that at the neglected grave at 
Waiilatpui. Build the monument and tell your 
children's children to go and stand uncovered 
in its shadow, and receive its lessons and breathe 
in its inspirations of patriotism. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



OREGON THEN, AND OREGON, WASHINGTON, AND IDAHO 

NOW. 



The beginning of a People, a State, or a Nation 
is always an interesting study, and when the be- 
ginning has resulted in a grand success, the 
interest increases. It is seldom that in the life- 
time of the multitudes of living actors, so great a 
transformation can be seen as that to-day illus- 
trated in the Pacific States. Fifty years ago, the 
immigrant, after his long journey over arid 
plains, after swimming rivers, and climbing three 
ranges of mountains, stood upon the last slope, 
and beheld primeval beauty spread out before 
him. The millions of acres of green meadows 
had never been disturbed by a furrow, and in the 
great forest the sound of the woodman's ax had 
never been heard. 

Coming by way of the great River, as it meets 
the incoming waves of the Pacific, the scene is 
still more one of grandeur. Astoria, at that 

263 



264 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

time, had a few straggling huts, and Portland 
was a village, with its streets so full of stumps, 
as to require a good driver to get through with 
safety, and was referred to as a town twelve 
miles below Oregon City. 

To the writer, nothing has left such an im- 
pression of wilderness and solitude as a journey 
up the Willamette, forty-five years ago, in a 
birch-bark canoe, paddled by two Indian guides. 
The wild ducks were scarcely disturbed, and 
dropped to the water a hundred yards away, and 
the three-pronged buck, browsing among the 
lily pads, stopped to look at the unusual invasion 
of his domain, and went on feeding. 

The population of Oregon in that year, 1850, 
as shown by census, was 13,294, and that included 
all of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, with a 
part of Wyoming and Montana. 

After years of importunity, Congress had 
given Oregon a Territorial Government, in 1849. 
Prior to that — from 1843 to l &49 — it was an 
independent American government, for the 
people and by the people. Notwithstanding the 
neglect of Oregon by the General Government, 
and its entire failure to foster or protect, the old 
Pioneers were true and loyal American citizens, 
and for six years took such care of themselves as 
they were able, and performed the task so well 
as to merit the best words of commendation. 

The commerce of the country, aside from its 



: 




REV. STEPHEN B. L. PENROSE, 
President of Whitman College. 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 265 

furs, was scarcely worth mentioning. The 
author, in 1851, bought what few salted salmon 
there were in the market, and shipped them to 
San Francisco, but wise and prudent advisers 
regarded it as a risky venture. He would have 
been considered a wild visionary, indeed, had he 
even hinted of the shipments of fish now annu- 
ally made to all parts of the civilized world. 

It was then known that the rivers were filled 
with fish. In the Spring of the year, the smaller 
streams, leading away from the Columbia, were 
literally blocked with almost solid masses of fish 
on their way to their spawning grounds. The 
bears along the Columbia, as well as the Indians, 
had an unlimited supply of the finest fish in 
the world, with scarcely an effort to take them. 
An Indian on the Willamette, at the foot of the 
Falls, could fill his boat in an hour with salmon 
weighing from twenty to forty pounds. 

In the Spring of the year, when the sa.mon 
are running up the Willamette, they begin to 
jump from the water a quarter of a mile before 
reaching the Falls. One could sit in a boat, and 
see hundreds of the great fish in the air con- 
stantly. Multitudes of them maimed and killed 
themselves jumping against the rocks at the 
Falls. 

The Indian did not wait for " a rise" or " a 
bite." He had a hook with an eye socket, and a 
pole ten feet or more long. The hook he fas- 



266 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

tened to a deer thong, about two feet long, 
attached to the lower end of the pole. When 
ready for fishing, the pole was inserted into the 
socket of the hook, and he felt for his fish, and, 
by a sudden jerk, caught it in the belly. The 
hook was pulled from the pole, and the fish had 
a play of the two feet of deer thong. But the 
Indian never stops to experiment ; he hauled in 
his prize. 

The great forests and prairies were a very 
paradise for the hunters of large game. Up to 
the date of 1842-3, of Dr. Whitman's ride, but a 
single hundred Americans had settled in Oregon, 
and they seemed to be almost accidental guests. 
The immigration in 1842 swelled the list, and the 
caravan of 1843 started the tide, so that in 1850, 
as we have seen, the first census showed an 
American population of 13,294. 

In 1890, in contrast, the population of Wash- 
ington was 349,390 ; Oregon, 313,767 ', Idaho, 
84,385, and five counties in Southwestern Mon- 
tana and one in Wyoming, originally Oregon 
territory, had a population of 65,862, making a 
total of 813,404. Considering the difficulties of 
reaching these distant States for many years, this 
change, in less than half a century, is a wonderful 
transformation. The Indians had held undis- 
puted possession of the land for generations, and 
yet, as careful a census as could be made, placed 
their number at below 75,000. In 1892, the Indian 
Commissioner marks the number at 21,057. 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 267 

The great changes are seen in the fact that 
in 1838 there were but thirteen settlements by 
white men in Oregon, viz: That at Waiilatpui, 
at Lapwai, at the Dalles and near Salem, and the 
Hudson Bay Forts at Walla Walla, Colville, 
Fort Hall, Boise, Vancouver, Nisqually, Umpqua, 
Okanogan and the settlement at Astoria. The 
old Missionaries felt thankful when letters 
reached them within two years after they were 
written. 

Mrs. \ itman's first letter from home was 
two years and six months reaching the Mission. 
The most sure and safe route was by way of 
New York or Montreal to London, around the 
Horn to the Sandwich Islands, from which place 
a vessel sailed every year for Columbia. The 
wildest visionaries at that time had not dreamed 
of being bound to the East by bands of steel, as 
Senator McDufifie said : " The wealth of the Indies 
would be insufficient to connect by steam the 
Columbia River to the States of the East." Un- 
cle Sam seems to have been taking a very sound 
and peaceful nap. He did not own California, 
and was even desirous of trading Oregon for the 
cod fisheries of Newfoundland. 

The debt of .gratitude the Americans owe to 
the men and women who endured the privations 
of that early day, and educated the Nation into 
the knowledge of its future glory and greatness, 
has not been fully appreciated. The settlers of 



268 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

iio other States of the frontier encountered such 
severe tests of courage and loyalty. The Mid- 
dle States of the Great West, while they had 
their hardships and trials, were always within 
reach of the strong arm of the Government, and 
felt its fostering care, and had many comforts 
which were wholly beyond the reach of the 
Oregon Pioneers. 

Their window glass for years and years was 
dressed deer skin; their parlor chairs were 
square blocks of wood; their centre tables were 
made by driving down four sticks and sawing 
boards by hand for top, the nearest saw-mill be- 
ing four hundred miles off. A ten-penny nail 
was prized as a jewel, and until Dr. Whitman 
built his mill, a barrel of flour cost him twenty- 
four dollars, and in those days that amount of 
money was equal to a hundred in our times of 
to-day. 

The plows were all wood, and deer thongs 
took the place of iron in binding the parts to- 
gether. It was ten years after they began to 
raise wheat before they had any other imple- 
ment than the sickle, and for threshing, the 
wooden flail. It was in the year 1839, the first 
printing press reached Oregon. It may be 
marked as among the pioneer civilizers of this 
now great and prosperous Christian Land. 

That press has a notable history and is to- 
day preserved at the State Capital of Oregon as 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGAN. 269 

a relic of by-gone days in printing. Long be- 
fore the civilization of Oregon 4 had begun in 
1819, the Congregational Missionaries to the 
Sandwich Islands had imported this press around 
the Horn from New England, and from that 
time up to 183Q, it had served an excellent pur- 
pose in furnishing Christian literature to the 
Kanakas. But the Sandwich Islanders had 
grown beyond it; and being presented with a 
finer outfit, the First Native Church at Hono- 
lulu made a present of the press, ink and paper 
to the Missions of Waiilatpui, Lapwai and Wal- 
ker's Plains. 

The whole was valued at $450 at that time. 
The Press was located at Lapwai, and used to 
print portions of Scripture and hymn books in 
the Nez Perces language, which books were 
used in all the Missions of the American Board. 
Visitors to these tribes of Indians, twenty-five 
years after the Missions had been broken up, 
and the Indians had been dispersed, found cop- 
ies of those books still in use and prized as great 
treasures. 

Another interesting event was the building 
of the first steamer, the Lot Whitcomb, in the 
Columbia River waters. This steamer was built 
of Oregon fir and spruce, and was launched Dec. 
26th, 1850, at Milwaukee, then a rival of Port- 
land. It was a staunch, well equipped vessel, 
one hundred and sixty feet in length; beam 



270 'HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

twenty-four feet ; depth of hold six feet ten 
inches ; breadth over all forty-two feet seven 
inches ; diameter of wheel nineteen feet ; 
length of bucket seven feet ; dip one foot eight 
inches, and draft three feet two inches. It was 
a staunch and elegantly equipped little vessel; 
did good service in the early days, making three 
round trips each week, from Milwaukee to 
Astoria, touching at Portland and Vancouver, 
then the only stopping places. The Whitcomb 
was finally sent to California, made over, named 
Annie Abernethy, and was used upon the Sacra- 
mento River as a pleasure and passenger boat. 

These two beginnings, of the printers art and 
the steamer, are all the more interesting when 
compared with the richness and show in the same 
fields to-day. The palatial ocean traveling steam- 
ers and the power presses and papers, scarcely 
second to any in editorial and news-gathering 
ability, best tell the wonderful advance from 
comparatively nothing at that time. 

The taxable property of Oregon in 1893 was 
$168,088,905; in Washington it was $283,110,032; 
in Idaho, $34,276,000. The manufactories of Ore- 
gon, in 1893, turned out products to the value of 
$245,100,267, and Washington, on fisheries alone, 
yielded a product valued at $915,500. There has 
been a great falling off, both in Oregon and 
Washington, in this source of wealth, and the 
eager desire to make money, will cause the annn 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 271 

hilation of this great traffic, unless there is better 
legal protection. Washington, in 1893, reported 
227 saw mills, and 300 shingle mills and 73 sash 
and door mills, and a capital invested in the 
lumber trade of $25,000,000. A wonderful 
change since Dr. Whitman sawed his boards by 
hand as late as 1840. 

The acres of forest yet undisturbed in Wash- 
ington are put down at 23,588,512. During 
President Harrison's term, a wooded tract in the 
Cascade Mountains, thirty-five by forty miles, 
including Mount Tacoma, was withdrawn from 
entry, and it is expected that Congress will 
reserve it for a National Park. The statistics 
relating to wheat, wool, and fruits of all kinds 
fully justifies the claim made by Dr. Whitman to 
President Tyler and Secretary Webster — that 
"The United States had better by far give all 
New England for the cod-fisheries of New- 
foundland, than to sacrifice Oregon." 

Reading the statistics of wealth of the States 
comprising the original territory of Oregon, 
their fisheries, their farm products, their lumber, 
their mines, yet scarcely begun to be developed, 
one wonders at the blindness and ignorance of 
our Statesmen fifty or more years ago, who came 
so near losing the whole great territory. If 
Secretary Daniel Webster could have stepped 
into the buildings of Washington, Oregon and 
Idaho that contained the wonderful exhibit at 



272 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

the World's Fair, he would doubtless have lifted 
his thoughts with profound gratitude that Dr. 
Whitman made his Winter ride and saved him 
from making the blunder of all the century. 

If old Senator McDuffie who averred that, 
"The wealth of the Indies could not pay for con- 
necting by steam the Columbia River with the 
States," could now take his place in a palace car 
of some one of the four great Transcontinental 
Lines, and be whirled over "The inaccessible 
mountains, and the intervening desert wastes." 
he, too, might be willing to give more than " A 
pinch of snuff" for our Pacific possessions. 

The original boundaries of Oregon contained 
over 300,000 square miles, which included all the 
country above latitude 42 and west of the 
Rocky Mountains. Its climate is mild and 
delightful, and in great variety, owing to the 
natural divisions of great ranges of mountains, 
and the warm ocean currents which impinge 
upon its shores, with a rapid current from the 
hot seas of Asia. This causes about seventy per 
cent, of the winds to blow from the southwest, 
bringing the warmth of the tropics to a land 
many hundreds of miles north of New York and 
Boston. It is felt even at Sitka, nearly 2,000 
miles further north than Boston, where ice can- 
not be gathered for Summer use; and whose har- 
bor has never yet been obstructed by ice. 

The typical features of the climate of west- 




DR. DANIEL K. PEARSONS. 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 273 

ern Oregon are the rains of Winter and a pro- 
tracted rainless season in Summer. In other 
words, there are two distinct seasons in Oregon 
— wet and dry. Snows in Winter and rains in 
Summer are exceptional. In eastern Oregon 
the climate more nearly approaches conditions 
in Eastern States. There are not the same ex- 
tremes, but there are the same features of Win- 
ter snow, and, in places, of Summer heat. South- 
ern Oregon is more like eastern than western 
Oregon. 

In eastern Oregon the temperature is lower 
in Winter and higher in Summer than in west- 
ern. The annual rainfall varies from 7 to 20 
inches. 

The Springs in Oregon are delightful; the 
Summer very pleasant. They are practically 
rainless, and almost always without great ex- 
tremes of heat. 

Fall rains usually begin in October. It is a 
noteworthy feature of Oregon Summers, that 
nights are always cool and refreshing. 

The common valley soil of the State is a rich 
loam, with a subsoil of clay. Along the streams 
it is alluvial. The "beaverdam lands" of this 
class are wonderfully fertile. This soil is made 
through the work of the beavers who dammed 
up streams and created lakes. When the water 
was drained away, the detritus covered the 
ground. The soil of the uplands is less fertile 

18 



274 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

than that of the bottoms and valleys, and is a 
red, brown and black loam. It produces an ex- 
cellent quality of natural grass, and under care- 
ful cultivation, produces good crops of grain, 
fruits and vegetables. East of the Cascade 
Mountains the soil is a dark loam of great 
depth, composed of alluvial deposits and decom- 
posed lava, overlying a clay subsoil. The con- 
stituents of this soil adapt the land peculiarly to 
the production of wheat. 

All the mineral salts which are necessary to 
the perfect development of this cereal are abun- 
dant, reproducing themselves constantly as the 
gradual processes of decomposition in this soil 
of volcanic origin proceeds. The clods are 
easily broken by the plow, and the ground 
quickly crumbles on exposure to the atmosphere. 

In northwestern Oregon, adjacent to the Co- 
lumbia River, although the dry season continues 
for months, this light porous land retains and 
absorbs enough moisture from the atmosphere, 
after the particles have been partly disinte- 
grated, to insure perfect development and full 
harvests. 

In southeastern Oregon, especially in the vast 
areas of fertile lands in Malheur and Snake 
River Valleys, the soils are much like those of the 
northeastern Oregon region, but there is less 
moisture. Except in a very small portion of 
this region, irrigation is necessary to successful 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 275 

agriculture. _ *.e water supply is abundant and 
easily applied. 

We have made no attempt to write a com- 
plete history of this great section or its wealth, 
but only to outline such facts as will make more 
impressive the value to the whole people of the 
distinguished services of the pioneers who saved 
this garden spot of the world to the people of 
the United States. "The Flag of Beauty and 
Glory" waves over no fairer Land, or over no 
more intelligent, prosperous and happy people- 
All this too has been reached within the mem- 
ory of multitudes of living actors; in fact it can 
be said the glow of youth is yet upon the brow 
of the young States. 

The lover of romance in reality will scarcely 
repress a sigh of regret, that with Oregon and 
Washington, the western limit of pioneering has 
been reached, after the strides of six thousand 
years. 

The circuit of the Globe has been completed 
and the curtain dropped upon the farther shores 
of Oregon and Washington, with a history as 
profoundly interesting v and dramatic as that 
written on any section of the world. "The Stars 
and Stripes" now wave from Ocean to Ocean, 
and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf. It is a 
nation of grand possibilities, whose history would 
have been marred for all time to come, had any 
foreign power, however good or great, held pos- 



276 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

session of the Pacific States. With China open 
to the World's commerce; with the young giant 
Japan inciting all the Far East to a new life and 
energy, the Pacific States of the Republic stand 
in the very gateway of the World's footsteps, 
and commerce and wealth. Only when meas- 
ured in and by the light of such facts, can we 
fully estimate the value to the whole people of 
the Nation of the mid-winter ride of our hero, 
and to the brave pioneers of Oregon. 



CHAPTER XV. 



LIFE ON THE GREAT PLAINS IN PIONEER DAYS. 



Nothing better shows the rapid advance of 
civilization in this country, than the fact that 
multitudes of the actors of those eventful years of 
pioneer life in Oregon and California, yet live to 
see and enjoy the wonderful transformation. In 
fact, the pioneer, most of all others, can, in its 
greatest fulness, take in and grasp the luxuries 
of modern life. 

Taking his section in a palace car in luxurious 
ease, he travels in six days over the same road 
which he wearily traveled, forty-five and 
fifty years ago, in from one hundred and fifty to 
one hundred and ninety days. The fact is not 
without interest to him that for more than a 
thousand miles of the way on the great central 
routes, he can throw a stone from the car window 
into his old camping grounds. 

The old plainsmen were not bad surveyors. 
They may not have been advanced in trigonom- 



078 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

etry or logarithms, but they had keen eyes and 
ripe practical judgment, which enabled them to 
master the situation. The trails marked and 
traveled by the old Missionaries, nine times in 
every ten, proved the best. Many a time did I, 
and others, by taking what seemed to be invit- 
ing "cut-offs," find out to our sorrow that the 
old trailers of ten years before us had been wiser. 

I make this a chapter of personal experience, 
not for any personal gratification, but because of 
the desire to make it real and true in every par- 
ticular, and because the data and incidents of 
travel of the old Missionaries are meager and 
incomplete. 

The experiences in 1836, 1843 and 1850, were 
much the same, save and except that in 1850 the 
way was more plainly marked than in 1836, which 
then was nothing more than an Indian trail, and 
even that often misleading. Besides that, the 
pioneer corps had made passable many' danger 
points, and had even left ferries over the most 
dangerous rivers. 

From 1846 to 1856 were ten years of great 
activity upon the frontier. The starting points 
for the journey across the Plains were many and 
scattered, from where Kansas City now stands 
to Fort Leavenworth. 

The time of which I write was 1850. Our little 
company of seven chosen friends, all young and 
inexperienced in any form of wild life, resolved 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 279 

upon the journey, and began preparations in 1849 
and were ready in March, 1850, to take a steamer 
at Cincinnati for Fort Leavenworth. We had 
consulted every authority within reach as to our 
outfit, both for our safety and comfort, and few 
voyagers ever started upon the long journey who 
had nearer the essential things, and so few that 
proved useless. 

In one thing we violated the recommenda- 
tions of all experienced plainsmen, and that was 
in the purchase of stock. We were advised to 
buy only mustangs and Mexican mules, but chose 
to buy in Ohio the largest and finest mules we 
could find. Our wagons were selected with great 
care as to every piece of timber and steel in their 
make-up, and every leather and buckle in the 
harness was scrutinized. 

Instead of a trunk, each carried clothes and 
valuables in a two bushel rubber bag, which 
could be made water-tight or air-tight, if re- 
quired. Extra shoes were fitted to the feet of 
each mule and riding horse and one of the num- 
ber proved to be an expert shoer. The supply 
of provisions was made a careful study, and we 
did not have the uncomfortable experience of 
Dr. and Mrs. Whitman, and run out of flour be- 
fore the journey was half over. 

There is nothing that develops the manhood 
of a man, or the lack of it, more quicky than life 
on the Plains. There is many a man surrounded 



280 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

by the sustaining influence of the home and of 
refined society, who seems very much of a man; 
and yet when these influences are removed, he 
wilts and dwarfs. I have seen men who had 
been religious leaders and exemplary in their 
lives, come from under all such restraints, and, 
within two months, "swear like troopers." 

Our little company was fortunate in being 
made up of a manly set of young men, who re- 
solved to stand by each other and each do his 
part. We soon joined the Mt. Sterling Mining 
Company, led by Major Fellows and Dr. C. P. 
Schlater, from Mt. Sterling, Mo. They were an 
excellent set of men and our company was then 
large enough for protection from any danger in 
the Indian country, and we kept together with- 
out a jar of any kind. 

In the year 1850, the Spring upon the frontier 
was backward. The grass, a necessity for the 
campaigner upon the plains, was too slow for us, 
so we bought an old Government wagon, in ad- 
dition to our regular wagons, filled it with corn, 
and upon May 1st, struck out through Kansas. 
It was then unsettled by white people. 

On the 5th day of May, we woke up to find 
the earth enveloped in five inches of snow, and 
matters looked discouraging, but the sun soon 
shone out and the snow disappeared and we be- 
gan to enter into the spirit and enjoyment of the 
wild life before us. 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 281 

The Indians were plentiful and visited us fre- 
quently, but they were all friendly that year with 
the whites throughout the border. A war party 
of the Cheyenne Indians visited us on their way 
to fight their enemy, the Pawnees. They were, 
physically, the finest body of men I ever saw. 
We treated them hospitably and they would have 
given up their fight and gone with us on a grand 
buffalo hunt, had we consented. The Chief would 
hardly take no for an answer. 

One of the great comforts of the plains trav- 
eling in those days, was order and system. Each 
man knew his duty each day and each night. 
One day a man would drive; another he would 
cook; another he would ride on horseback. 
When we reached the more dangerous Indian 
country, our camp was arranged for defense in 
case of an attack, but we always left our mules 
picketed out to grass all night, and never left 
them without a guard. 

About the most trying labor of that journey 
was picket duty over the mules at night, especi- 
ally when the grass was a long distance from the 
camp, as it sometimes was. After a long day's 
travel it was a lonesome, tiresome task to keep 
up all night, or even half of it. The animals 
were tethered with a rope eighteen feet long 
buckled to the fore leg, and the other end at- 
tached to an iron pin twelve to eighteen inches 
long, securely driven into the ground. As the 



282 MOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON, 

animals fed they were moved so as to keep them 
upon the best pasture. In spite of the best care 
they would occasionally cross and the mischief 
would be to pay, unless promptly relieved. 

Our greatest fear was from the danger of a 
stampede, either from Indians or from wild ani- 
mals. The Indian regards it as a great accom- 
plishment to steal a horse from a white man. 
One day a well-dressed and very polite Indian 
came into camp where we were laying by for 
a rest. He could talk broken English and 
mapped out the country in the sand over the 
route we were to travel — told us all about good 
water and plenty of grass. He informed us that 
for some days we would go through the good 
Indian's country, but then we came to the 
mountains; and then he began to paw the air 
with his arms and snap an imaginary whip and 
shout, "Gee Buck — wo haw, damn ye!" Then 
says our good Indian, " Look out for hoss 
thieves." Then he got down in the grass and 
showed us how the Indian would wiggle along 
in the grass until he found the picket pin and 
lead his horse out so slowly that the guard would 
not notice the change, until he was outside the 
line, when he would mount and ride away. 

Tnat very night two of the best horses of the 
Mt. Sterling Mining Company were stolen in 
just that way, and to make the act more grievous, 
they were picketed so near to the tents as to 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON, 283 

seem to the guards to be perfectly safe. We 
may have misjudged our "good Indian" who 
came into camp, but we have always believed 
that he was there to see whether there were any 
horses worth stealing, and then did the steal- 
ing himself. 

We can bear testimony also, that he was a 
good geographer. His map made in the sand 
and transferred to paper was perfect, and when 
we came to the mountains, his " Gee Buck, wo 
haw, damn ye!" was heard all up and down that 
mountain. The Indian had evidently been there 
and knew what he was saying. They gave us 
but little trouble except to watch our live stock, 
as the Indian never takes equal chances. He 
wants always three chances to one, in his favor. 
To show you are afraid, is to lose the contest 
with an Indian. I have many times, by showing 
a brave front, saved my scalp. 

Upon one occasion when I had several loose 
mules leading, I allowed myself unthinkingly to 
lag for two miles behind the company through 
a dangerous district. I was hurrying to amend 
the wrong by a fast trot, when upon a turn in 
the road a vicious looking Indian, with his bow 
half bent and an arrow on the string, stepped 
from behind a sage bush to the middle of the 
road and signaled me to stop when twenty feet 
away. 

I was unarmed and made up my mind at 



284 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

once to show no fear. Upon coming within 
six or eight feet of him, I drove the spurs into 
my horse and gave such a yell that the Indian 
had all he could do to dodge my horse's feet. 
He was evidently astonished and thought, from 
the boldness of the move, that I had others near 
by. My horse and mules went on a dead run 
and I expected, as I leaned forward, every 
moment to feel his arrow. 

I glanced back when fifty yards away and he 
was anxiously looking back to see who else was 
coming and I was out of his reach before he 
had made up his mind. I was never worse 
frightened. 

Upon another occasion I bluffed an Indian 
just as effectively. With two companions I went 
to a Sioux village to buy a pair of moccasins. 
They were at peace and we felt no danger. 
Most of the men were absent from the village, 
leaving only a small guard. I got separated 
from my companions, but found an Indian mak- 
ing moccasins, and I stood in the door and 
pointed to a new pair about the size I wanted, 
that hung on the ridge pole, and showed him a 
pair of handsome suspenders that I would give 
him for them. He assented by a nod and a 
grunt, came to the door, took the suspenders 
and hung them up, deliberately sat down on the 
floor and took off a dirty old pair he was wear- 
ing and threw them to me. I immediately threw 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 285 

them back, and stepping into the tepee, caught 
hold of the moccasins I had bought, but by a 
quick motion he snatched them from me. 

I then caught hold of the suspenders and 
bounded out of the door. When fifty feet away 
I looked back and he had just emerged from his 
tepee and began loading his rifle. I had emptied 
both barrels of my shot-gun at a plover just be- 
fore reaching the village and my gun was unfor- 
tunately unloaded. It gave us equal chances. 
I stopped still, threw my gun from the strap and 
began loading. In those days I was something 
of an expert and before the Indian withdrew his 
ramrod, I was putting caps on both barrels and 
he bounded inside his wigwam, and I lost no 
time in putting a tepee between us, and finding 
my friends, when we hastily took leave. 

Our company took great comfort and pride 
in our big American mules, trained in civilized 
Ohio. A pair of the largest, the wheelers in the 
six-mule team, were as good as setter dogs at 
night. They neither liked Indians, wolves nor 
grizzlies; and their scent was so keen they could 
smell their enemies two hundred yards away, 
unless the wind was too strong. 

When on guard, and in a lonesome, danger- 
ous place, we generally kept close to our long- 
eared friends, and when they stopped eating and 
raised their heads and pointed those ponderous 
ears in any direction, we would drop in the grass 



286 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

and hold ourselves ready for any emer- 
gency. They would never resume their feeding 
until assured that the danger had passed. 

And then what faithful fellows to pull! At a 
word they would plant their feet on a mountain 
side and never allow the wagon to give back a 
single foot, no matter how precipitous; and again 
at the word, they would pull with the precision 
of a machine. 

The off-leader, " Manda " was the handsom- 
est mule ever harnessed. As everybody re- 
marked, "She was as beautiful as a picture." 
She would pull and stand and hold the wagon as 
obedient to command as an animal could be, but 
she was by nature wild and vicious. She was the 
worst kicker I ever saw. She allowed herself to 
be shod, seeming to understand that this was a 
necessity. But no man ever succeeded in riding 
her. She beat the trick mules in any circus in 
jumping and kicking. 

One night we had a stampede, and one of 
the flying picket pins struck the mule between 
the bones of the hind leg, cutting a deep gash, 
four inches or more long; the swelling of the limb 
causing the wound to gape open fully two 
inches. She did not attempt to bear her weight 
upon the limb, barely touching it to the ground. 
The flies were very bad, and knowing the ani- 
mal, and while prizing her so highly, we were 
all convinced that we must leave her. The train 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 287 

pulled out. It was my duty that morning to 
bring on the loose stock, and see that nothing of 
value was overlooked in camp. I was ready to 
leave, when I went up to the mule that had come 
with us all the way from home, nearly three thou- 
sand miles, and had been a faithful servant, and 
began petting her, expressing my pity and sorrow 
that we had to leave her here for the Indians 
and the wolves. As I rubbed her head and 
talked to her, the poor dumb brute seemed to 
understand every word said. 

Never before in all the long journey had the 
famous six mule team gone out without Manda 
prancing as off leader. She rubbed me with her 
nose and laid it upon my shoulder, and seemed 
to beg as eloquently as a dumb beast can, " Don't 
leave me behind." With it all, there was a 
kindly look in her eye, I never before had seen. 
I stood stroking her head for some time, then I 
patted her neck and walked a little back, but 
constantly on guard. It was then the animal 
turned her head and looked at me, and at the 
same time held up the wounded leg. My friend 
Moore, who had staid back to assist, was a little 
distance off, and I called him. 

As he came up, I said to him, " This mule 
has had a change of heart." He put a bridle 
upon her so that he could hold up her head, and 
rubbing her side, I finally ventured to take hold 
of the wounded leg. I rubbed it and fondled it 



288 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

without her showing any symptom of resent- 
ment. 

I got out instruments, sewed the wound up, 
and sewed bandages tight about the leg, made a 
capital dressing and we started, leading Manda. 
She soon began to bear weight upon the wounded 
limb, and had no difficulty in keeping up with 
the train. When the bandages would get mis- 
placed, one could get down in the road with no 
one to assist, and adjust them. We took Manda 
all the way, and no handsomer animal ever 
journeyed across the plains. She was never 
known to kick afterward. 

People call it "instinct in animals," but the 
more men know and study dumb life, the more 
they are impressed with their reasoning intelli- 
gence. Dr. Whitman's mule, finding camp in the 
blinding snow storm on the mountains, when the 
shrewd guide was hopelessly lost; my old horse 
leading me and my friend in safety through the 
Mississippi River back water in the great forest 
of Arkansas, as well as this, which I have told 
without an embellishment, all teach impressively 
the duty of kindness that we owe to our dumb 
friends. 

In Mrs. Whitman's diary we frequently find 
allusion to her faithful pony, and her sympathy 
with him when the grass is scarce and the work 
hard, is but an evidence of true nobility in the 
woman. In a long journey like the one made 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 289 

from Ohio to the Pacific Coast, it is wonderful 
what an affection grows up between man and his 
dumb helpers. And there is no mistaking the 
fact that animals appreciate and reciprocate such 
kindness. Even our dog was no exception. 

As I have started in to introduce my dumb 
associates, it would be a mistake, especially for 
my boy readers, to omit Rover. He was a young 
dog when we started, but he was a dog of thor- 
ough education and large experience before he 
reached the end of his journey. He was no dog 
with a long pedigree of illustrious ancestors, but 
was a mixed St. Bernard and Newfoundland, and 
grew up large, stately and dignified. He was 
petted, but never spoiled. When he was tired 
and wanted to ride, he knew how to tell the fact 
and was never told that he was nothing but a 
dog. 

He was no shirk as a walker, but the hot sal- 
eratus dust and sand wore out his feet. We took 
the fresh skin of an antelope and made boots for 
him, but when no one was looking at him, he would 
gnaw them off. When the company separated 
afterreachingthe Coast, Rover, byunanimouscon- 
sent, went with his favorite master, J . S. Niswander, 
now a grey haired honored citizen of Gilroy, Cal. 
A few years ago I visited Niswander and Dr. J. 
Doan who, with myself, are the only living sur- 
vivors of our company, and he gave me the his- 
tory of Rover after I left for Oregon. 

19 



290 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

Niswander was a famous grizzly bear hunter, 
and with Rover as a companion, he made jour- 
neys prospecting for gold, and hunting, long 
distances from civilization. When night came, 
the pack mule was picketed near by and a big 
fire built, with plenty of wood to keep it replen- 
ished during the night. Rover laid himself 
against his master's feet, and in case of danger, 
he would always waken him with a low growl 
close to his ear, and when this was done, he 
would lope off in the dark and find out what 
it was, while Niswander held his gun and re- 
volver ready for use. If the dog came back and 
lay down, he knew at once it was a false alarm 
and dropped to sleep in perfect security. 

At one time he brought among his provisions 
a small firkin of butter, a great luxury at that 
time. He took the firkin and set it in the shade 
of a great red-wood, tumbled off the rest of his 
goods, picketed his mule, and went off prospect- 
ing for gold, telling Rover to take care of the 
things until he returned. He was gone all day 
and returned late in the evening, and looking 
around could not see his firkin of butter. He 
told me he turned to the old dog and said, 
"Rover, I never knew you to do such a trick 
before and I am ashamed of you." The old 
fellow only hung his head upon being scolded. 
But soon after Mr. N. noticed a suspicious pile 
of leaves about the roots of the tree, and when 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 291 

he had turned them aside he found his firkin of 
butter untouched. 

The high wind which had arisen, had blown 
the paper cover from the butter and the dog 
knew it ought to be covered, and with his feet 
and nose had gathered the leaves for more than 
a rod around and covered it up, 

The Indians finally poisoned the old dog for 
the purpose of robbing his master. Said he, 
"When Rover died, I shed more tears than I had 
shed for years." 

While reading, as I have, Mrs. Whitman's 
daily diary of her journey in 1836, I am most 
astonished at the lack of all complaints and mur- 
murings. I know so well the perils and discom- 
forts she met on the way and see her every day, 
cheerful and smiling and happy, and filled with 
thankfulness for blessings received, that she 
seems for the very absence of any repining, to 
be a woman of the most exalted character. 

I have traveled for days and weeks through 
saleratus dust that made lips, face and eyes tor- 
mentingly sore, while the throat and air tubes 
seemed to be raw. She barely mentions them. 
I have camped many a time, as she doubtless 
did, where the water was poisonous with alkali, 
and unfit for man or beast. I have been stung 
by buffalo flies until the sting of a Jersey mos- 
quito would be a positive luxury. She barely 
mentions the pests. She does once mildly say, 



292 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

"The mosquitos were so thick we could hardly 
breathe," and that "the fleas covered all our 
garments" and made life a burden until she 
could get clear of them. 

Then there were snakes. As far as I know 
she never once complained of snakes. This 
makes it all the more necessary in giving a true 
picture of pioneering upon the plains, to 
give a real experience. There is nothing 
more hateful than a snake. We were intro- 
duced to the prairie rattler very early in the 
journey and some had sport over it. We all 
wore high, rattlesnake boots; they were heavy 
and hard on the feet that had been accus- 
tomed to softer covering. 

One of our gallant boys had received a present 
of a pair of beautiful embroidered slippers from 
a loved friend, and after supper he threw off 
those high snake boots and put on his slippers. 
Just then he was reminded that it was his duty 
that night to assist in picketing the mules in 
fresh pasture. He got hold of two lariats and 
started off singing, "The Girl I Left Behind 
Me." About one hundred and fifty yards off, he 
heard that ominous rattle near by and he 
dropped those lariats and came into camp 
at a speed that elicited cheers from the entire 
crowd. 

Early in the journey an old Indian told me 
how to keep the snakes from our beds, and that 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 293 

was to get a lariat made from the hair of a buf- 
falo's neck and lay it entirely around the bed. I 
got the lariat and seldom went to sleep without 
being inside of its coil. It is a fact that a snake 
will not willingly crawl over such a rope. The 
sharp prickly bristles are either uncomfortable 
to them, or they expect there is danger. 

One night of horrors never to be forgotten 
was when I did not have my Indian lariat. Who 
of my readers ever had a rattlesnake attempt to 
make a nest in his hair ? The story may hardly 
be worth telling, but I will relate it just as it 
occurred. 

We had camped on the St. Mary's River and 
had gone four miles off the road to find good 
grazing for our animals. Supper was over, our 
bugler had sounded his last note, and we were 
preparing for bed when a man came in from a 
camp a mile off, and reported that they had 
found a man on a small island, who was very 
sick and they wanted a doctor. 

Dr. Schlater, of the Mt. Sterling Mining Com- 
pany, at once got ready and went with him. 
Dr. Schlater was one of the grand specimens of 
manhood. He worked with the sick man all 
night and at daylight came down and asked me 
to go up with him. While we were bathing him, 
the company of Michigan packers, who had 
found the stranger, moved off, and left us alone 
with the sick man, who was delirious and could 
give no account of himself. 



294 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

We found from papers in his pockets that his 
name was West Williams, of Bloomington, Iowa, 
and he carried a card from the I. O. O. F. of 
that place. We made him as comfortable as 
possible and went back to our camp and reported 
his condition. We found the company all ready 
to move out, only waiting for us. The man was 
too sick to travel and it would not do to let him 
remain there alone, and it was decided that Dr. 
S. and I should remain with him and try and 
find his friends or hire some person to take care 
of him, and then, by forced marches, we could fol- 
low on and catch the company. 

We raised a purse of one hundred dollars and 
with such medicines as we needed and other sup- 
plies, also kept back a light spring wagon, and 
brought the sick man to our camp. I suggested 
to the Doctor that he ride over to the road and 
put up some written notices, giving the man's 
name, etc. He wrote out several and posted 
them on the trees where they would attract at- 
tention from passers. While he was doing this, 
a man with an ox-team came along and proved 
to be an old friend of the sick man right from 
the same locality. His name was Van S. Israel. 
He at once came with he Doctor and took 
charge of Williams, greatly to our relief. 

While the Doctor was up on the road he was 
called to prescribe for another sick man by the 
name of Mahan, from Missouri. Learning where 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 295 

we were located, the Mahans moved down to our 
camp. The sick man was accompanied by his 
brother, and they had a spendid outfit. We 
concluded to give the entire day to the sick man 
and ride across the small desert just ahead dur- 
ing the night. A tent was erected for Mahan, 
and he walked in and laid down. 

An hour or so later, I went to the tent door 
and looking in saw the man lying dead. I 
spoke to his brother, who went into the tent con- 
vulsed with grief. I had scarcely reached my tent 
before I heard a piercing scream and rushed 
back, and upon opening the tent flap was horri- 
fied to behold the largest rattle-snake I had ever 
seen, coiled on the opposite side of the dead 
body and the living brother crowding as far away 
as possible on the other side, to be out of his 
reach. 

As soon as I appeared, the snake uncoiled 
and slipped under the edge of the tent. I caught 
up a green cottonwood stick and ran around and 
he at once coiled for a fight. I let him strike the 
stick. After striking each time he would try to re- 
treat, but a gentle tap with the stick would arouse 
his anger and he would coil and strike again. At 
first a full drop of the yellow fluid appeared 
upon the stick. This gradually diminished, and 
with it the courage of the reptile, which seemed 
to lose all fighting propensity. I then killed him. 

Just before sunset we were ready to leave our 



296 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

sad associates, and we rode down to the river to 
give our mules a drink. The St. Mary is a 
deep stream running through a level stretch 
with no banks. The mules had often been caved 
into the deep water and learned to get down on 
their knees to drink. For fear of an accident, I 
got off and allowed my mule to kneel and drink. 
As he got upon his feet I swung into the saddle 
and started on. I had scarcely got firmly 
seated when, right under the mule, a rattler sang 
out. My double-barrel gun was hanging from 
my shoulder, muzzle down. As quick as a flash 
I slipped my arm through the strap, cocked the 
gun at the same time, and the mule shying, 
brought his snakeship in range, and just as he 
was in the act of striking, I shot him dead. The 
only good thing about the rattler is that he 
always gives the alarm before striking. 

It was about three o'clock in the morning 
when we got through the desert and reached a 
cluster of trees, and resolved to stop and take a 
little sleep, and give our mules the feed of grass 
we had tied behind our saddles. We found a 
fallen tree and tied our animals to the boughs- 
and fed them. A small company of packers 
were there asleep with their heads toward the 
fallen tree. We passed them to near the butt of 
the tree, threw aside some rotten chunks, spread 
a blanket, and each rolled up in another, lay 
down to rest. My snake-lariat was with the wa- 




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HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 297 

gon, but I was too tired to think much of it. 
The Doctor being up all the night before, was 
asleep in two minutes. I was dozing off, with 
rattlesnakes and all the horrors of the past day 
running through my mind, when I was suddenly 
awakened by something pulling and working in 
my long, bushy hair. Barbers were not plentiful 
on the plains, and, besides, the plainsmen wear 
long hair as a protection. I suppose it was only 
a few minutes of suspense, and yet it seemed an 
hour, before I became wide awake, and reached 
at once the conclusion that I had poked my head 
near the log where his snakeship was sleeping, 
and the evening being cool, he was trying to 
secure warmer quarters. I knew it would not do 
to move my head. I quietly slipped my right 
arm from the blanket, and slowly moved my hand 
within six inches of my head. I felt the raking 
of a harder material, which seemed like a fang 
scraping the scalp. This made me almost 
frantic. Suddenly, I grasped the offender by the 
head, jerking hair and all, and, jumping to 
my feet, yelled, so that every packer bounced to 
his feet, and seized his gun, thinking we were 
attacked by Indians. This is a round-about way 
to tell a snake story, but all the facts had to be 
recited to reveal the real conditions. 

It was forty-five years ago, and the sensations 
of the time are vivid to this day ; and it doesn't 
even matter that the offender was not a rattler, 



298 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

but only an honest, little, cold-footed tree-toad, 
trying to get warmed up. But he frightened me 
as badly as the biggest rattler on the St. Mary's 
could, and I helped him to make a hop that beat 
the record of Mark Twain's jumping-frog in his 
best days. 

But life on the plains was not a continued 
succession of discomforts. The dyspeptic could 
well afford to make such a journey to gain the 
appetite and the good digestion. The absence 
of annoying insect life during the night, and the 
pure, invigorating air, makes sleep refreshing 
and health-giving. For a month at a time we 
have lain down to sleep, looking up at the stars, 
without the fear of catching cold, or feeling a 
drop of dew. There are long dreary reaches of 
plains to pass that are wearisome to th'e eye and 
the body, but the mountain scenery is nowhere 
more picturesquely beautiful. 

At that time the sportsman could have a sur- 
feit in all kinds of game, by branching off from 
the lines of travel and taking the chances of losing 
his scalp. Herds of antelope were seen every 
day feeding in the valleys, while farther away 
there were buffalo by the hundred thousand. 
The great butchery of these noble animals had 
then but fairly begun. To-day, there still live 
but three small herds. Our company did not 
call it sport to kill buffalo for amusement. It was 
not sport, but butchery. A man could ride up 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 299 

by the side of his victim and kill him with a 
pistol. 

It was among our rules to allow no team ani- 
mal to be used in the chase. But I forgot myself 
once and violated the rule. We were resting 
that day in camp. In the distance I saw two 
hunters after a huge buffalo bull, coming toward 
our camp. I saw by the direction that one could 
ride around the spurof a high hill about a mile dis- 
tant, and intercept him. We had as a saddle 
horse of one team, an old clay back, which was 
one of the most solemn horses I have ever 
seen. His beauty was in his great strength and 
his long mane and tail. But he carried his head 
on a straight level with his back and never was 
known to put on any airs. He stood picketed 
handy, and seizing a bridle and my gun I 
mounted without a saddle and urged the old 
horse into a lope. 

As I turned the spur of the hill, the bull came 
meeting me fifty yards away. He was a mon- 
ster; his tongue protruded, and he was frothing at 
the mouth from his long run. He showed no 
signs of turning from his road because of my 
appearance. Just then, when not more than 
thirty yards away, my old horse saw him and 
turned so quickly as to nearly unseat me. He 
threw up his head until that great mane of his 
enveloped me; and he broke for the camp at a 
gait no one ever dreamed he possessed. I did 



300 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

no shooting, but I did the fastest riding I ever 
indulged in before or since. It is a fact, that a 
mad buffalo, plunging toward you is only pleas- 
ant when you can get out of his way. 

The slaughter and annihilation of the buffalo 
is the most atrocious act ever classed under the 
head of sport. A few years ago, while travel- 
ing over the Great Northern Railway, I saw at 
different stations ricks of bones from a quarter 
toa third of a mile long, piledupashigh asthetops 
of the cars, awaiting shipment. I asked one of the 
experienced and reliable railway officials of the 
traffic, and he informed me that " Not less than 
twenty-six thousand car loads of buffalo bones 
had been shipped over the Great Northern Rail- 
road to the bone factories; and not one in a 
thousand of the remains had ever been touched." 
The weight of a full-sized buffalo's bones is 
about sixty pounds. The traffic is still enor- 
mous along these northern lines. If the Indian 
had any sentiment, it would likely be called out, 
as he wanders over the plains and gathers up 
the dry bones of these well-nigh extinct wild 
herds, that fed and clothed his tribe through so 
many generations. 

I have seen beautiful horses but never saw 
any half »o handsome as the wild horses upon the 
plains. The tame horse, however well groomed, 
is despoiled of his grandeur. He compares with 
his wild brother as the plebian compares with 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 301 

royalty. I saw a beautiful race between two 
Greasers who were chasing a herd of wild 
horses. They were running parallel with the 
road I was traveling, and I spurred up and ran 
by their side some four hundred yards distant, 
and had a chance to study them for many miles. 

I afterwards saw a handsome stallion that 
had just been caught. He was tied and in a cor- 
ral, but if one approached he would jump at 
him and strike and kick as savagely as possible. 
His back showed saddle marks, which proved 
that he had not always been the wild savage he 
had then become. The mountains and hills 
where the wild horses were then most numer- 
ous, were covered with wild oats, which gave the 
country the appearance of large cultivation. 

Among the interesting facts which the trav- 
eler on the great plains learns, and often to his 
discomfort, is the deception as to distance. He 
sees something of interest and resolves "It is 
but two miles away," but the chances are that it 
will prove to be eight or ten miles. The coun- 
try is made up of great waves. Looking off 
you see the top of a wave, and when you get 
there a valley that you did not see, stretches 
away for miles. 

We always tried to treat our Indian guests 
courteously, but they were often voted a nuisance. 
While cooking our supper they would often form 
a circle, twenty or thirty of them sitting on the 



302 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

ground, and they looked so longingly at the 
bread and ham and coffee, that it almost took 
one's appetite away. We could only afford to 
give the squaws what was left. To fill up such a 
crowd would have soon ended our stock of 
supplies. 

One of the things that made an Indian grunt, 
and even laugh, was to see our cook baking pan- 
cakes in a long handled frying pan. To turn the 
cake over he tossed it in the air and caught it as 
it came down. A cook on the plains that could 
not do that was not up in his business. 

Except upon the mountains and rocky 
canyons, the roads were as good as a turnpike; 
but some of the climbs and descents were fear- 
ful, while an occasional canyon, miles long, 
looked wholly impassable without breaking the 
legs of half the animals and smashing the wagons. 

The old plainsmen had a way of setting tires 
upon a loose wheel that was novel. Our tires 
became very loose from the long dry reaches. 
We took off the tire, tacked a slip of fresh hide 
entirely around the rim, heated the tire, dropped 
it on the wheel and quickly chucked it into the 
water and had wheels as good as new. 

Our company was three nights and two days 
and nearly a half in crossing the widest desert. 
It was a beautiful firm road until we struck deep 
sand, which extended out for eleven miles from 
Carson River into the desert. Before starting 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 303 

we emptied our rubber clothes sacks, filled them 
with water, hauled hay, which we had cured, to 
feed our mules, and made the trip as pleasanly 
as if upon green soil. The lack of water on this 
wide desert had left many thousand bones of 
dead animals bleaching upon its wastes. Many 
wells had been dug in various places and we 
tested the water in them and found it intensely 
salt. The entire space is evidently the bed of a 
salt sea. 

In the long reaches where no trees ot any 
kind grow, the entire dependence of the early 
pioneer for fire was upon buffalo chips, the ani- 
mal charcoal of the plains. It makes a good 
fire and is in no way offensive. And if no iron 
horse had invaded the plains, buffalo chips would 
be selling all along the route to-day at forty dol- 
lars per ton. 

One of the pleasant historical events in which 
our company naturally takes a pride is, that 
one night we camped upon a little mountain 
stream near where the city of Denver now 
stands; the whole land as wild as nature made 
it. Many years afterward one of the little band, 
Frank Denver, was elected Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor of Colorado, and General J. W. Denver 
was among the most prominent politicians of 
the Coast, and the city of Denver was named in 
honor of them. I have thus, as concisely as 
I could, sketched life as it was in a wagon 



304 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

ourney across the plains forty-five and fifty 
jyears ago. It was a memorable experience, and 
none who took it will fail to have of it a vivid 
remembrance, as long as life lasts. If its annoy- 
ances were many, its novelties and pleasing 
remembrances were so numerous as to make it 
the notable journey of even the most adventur- 
ous life. 



APPENDIX. 



NARRATIVE OF THE WINTER TRIP ACROSS THE ROCKY 
MOUNTAINS OF DR. MARCUS WHITMAN AND HON. 
A. LAWRENCE LOVEJOY, IN 1 842, FUR- 
NISHED BY REQUEST, FROM 
MR. LOVEJOY, THE 
SURVIVOR. 



Oregon City, Feb. 14, 1876. 
Dr. Atkinson — Dear Sir: In compliance 
with your request, I will endeavor to give you 
some idea of the journey of the late Dr. Marcus 
Whitman from Oregon to Washington, in the 
winter of 1842 and '43. True, I was the Doctor's 
traveling companion in that arduous and trying 
journey, but it would take volumes to describe 
the many thrilling scenes and dangerous hair- 
breadth escapes we passed through, traveling, 
as we did, almost the entire route through a 
hostile Indian country, and enduring much suffer- 
ing from the intense cold and snow we had to 
encounter in passing over the Rocky Mountains 

20 305 



306 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

in mid-winter. I crossed the Plains in company 
with Dr. White and others, and arrived at Waii- 
latpui the last of September, 1842. My party 
camped some two miles below Dr. Whitman's 
place. The day after our arrival Dr. Whitman 
called at our camp and asked me to accom- 
pany him to his house, as he wished me 
to draw up a memorial to Congress to prohibit 
the sale of ardent spirits in this country. The 
Doctor was alive to the interests of this Coast, 
and manifested a very warm desire to have it 
properly represented at Washington ; and after 
numerous conversations with the Doctor touch- 
ing the future prosperity of Oregon, he asked me 
one day in a very anxious manner, if I thought 
it would be possible for him to cross the moun- 
tains at that time of the year. I told him I 
thought he could. He next asked, "Will you 
accompany me?" After a little reflection, I told 
him I would. His arrangements were rapidly 
made. Through the kindness of Mr. McKinly, 
then stationed at Fort Walla Walla, Mrs. Whit 
man was provided with suitable escorts to the 
Willamette valley, where she was to remain with 
her Missionary friends until the Doctor's return. 
We left Waiilatpui October 3, 1842, traveled 
rapidly, reached Fort Hall in eleven days, 
remained two days to recruit and make a few 
purchases. The Doctor engaged a guide and we 
left for Fort Uintah. We changed from a direct 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 307 

route to one more southern, through the Spanish 
Country via. Salt Lake, Taos and Santa Fe. On 
our way from Fort Hall to Fort Uintah, we had 
terribly severe weather. The snows retarded 
our progress and blinded the trail so we lost 
much time. After arriving at Fort Uintah and 
making some purchases for our trip, we took a 
new guide and started for Fort Uncumpahgra, 
situated on the waters of Grand River, in the Span- 
ish Country. Here our stay was very short. 

We took a new guide and started for Taos. 
After being out some four or five days we en- 
coutered a terrible snow storm, which forced us 
to seek shelter in a deep ravine, where we re- 
mained snowed in for four days, at which time 
the storm had somewhat abated, and we at- 
tempted to make our way out upon the high 
lands, but the snow was so deep and the winds 
so piercing and cold we were compelled to return 
to camp and wait a few days for a change of 

weather. 

Our next effort to reach the highlandswas 
more successful; but after spending several days 
wandering around in the snow without mak- 
ing much headway, our guide told us that the 
deep snow had so changed the face of the coun- 
try that he was completely lost and could take 
us no farther. This was a terrible blow to the 
Doctor, but he was determined not to give it up 
without another effort. We at once agreed that 



308 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

the Doctor should take the guide and return to 
Fort Uncumpahgra and get a new guide, and I 
remain in camp with the animals until he could 
return; which he did in seven days with our new 
guide, and we were now on our route again. 
Nothing of much importance occurred but hard 
and slow traveling through deep snow until we 
reached Grand River, which was frozen on either 
side about one-third across. Although so in- 
tensely cold, the current was so very rapid, about 
one-third of the river in the center was not 
frozen. Our guide thought it would be danger- 
ous to attempt to cross the river in its present 
condition, but the Doctor, nothing daunted, was 
the first to take the water. He mounted his 
horse and the guide and myself shoved the Doctor 
and his horse off the ice into the foaming stream. 
Away he went completely under water, horse and 
all, but directly came up, and after buffeting the 
rapid, foaming current he reached the ice on the 
opposite shore a long way down the stream. He 
leaped from his horse upon the ice and soon had 
his noble animal by his side. The guide and 
myself forced in the pack animals and followed 
the Doctor's example, and were soon on the op- 
posite shore drying our frozen clothes by a com- 
fortable fire. We reached Taos in about thirty 
days, suffering greatly from cold and scarcity of 
provisions. We were compelled to use mule 
meat, dogs and such other animals as came in 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 309 

our reach. We remained at Taos a few days 
only, and started for Bent's and Savery's Fort, 
on the head waters of the Arkansas River. 
When we had been out some fifteen or twenty 
days, we met George Bent, a brother of Gov. 
Bent, on his way to Taos. He told us that a party 
of mountain men would leave Bent's Fort in a 
few days for St. Louis, but said we would not 
reach the Fort with our pack animals in time to 
join the party. The Doctor being very anxious 
to join the party so he could push on as rapidly 
as possible to Washington, concluded to leave 
myself and guide with the animals, and he him- 
self, taking the best animal, with some bedding 
and a small allowance of provision, started alone, 
hoping by rapid travel to reach the Fort in time 
to join the St. Louis party, but to do so he would 
have to travel on the Sabbath, something we 
had not done before. Myself and guide traveled 
on slowly and reached the Fort in four days, but 
imagine our astonishment, when on making in- 
quriry about the Doctor, we were told that he had 
not arrived nor had he been heard of. 

I learned that the party for St. Louis was 
camped at the Big Cottonwood, forty miles from 
the Fort, and at my request, Mr. Savery sent an 
express telling the party not to proceed any fur- 
ther until we learned something of Dr. Whit- 
man's whereabouts, as he wished to accompany 
them to St. Louis. Being furnished by the gen- 



310 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN 'SAVED OREGON. 

tlemen of the Fort with a suitable guide, I started 
in search of the Doctor, and traveled up the river 
about one hundred miles. I learned from the 
Indians that a man had been there, who was lost, 
and was trying to find Bent's Fort. They said 
they had directed him to go down the river, and 
how to find the Fort. I knew from their descrip- 
tion it was the Doctor. I returned to the Fort as 
rapidly as possible, but the Doctor had not 
arrived. We had all become very anxious about 
him. 

Late in the afternoon he came in very much 
fatigued and desponding ; said that he knew 
that God had bewildered him to punish him for 
traveling on the Sabbath. During the whole 
trip he was very regular in his morning and even- 
ing devotions, and that was the only time I ever 
knew him to travel on the Sabbath. 

The Doctor remained all night at the Fort, 
starting early on the following morning to join 
the St. Louis party. Here we parted. The 
Doctor proceeded to Washington. I remained 
at Bent's Fort until Spring, and joined the 
Doctor the following July, near Fort Laramie, 
on his way to Oregon, in company with a train 
of emigrants. He often expressed himself to me 
about the remainder of his journey, and the 
manner in which he was received at Washington, 
and by the Board for Foreign Missions at 
Boston. He had several interviews with Presi- 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 311 

dent Tyler, Secretary Webster, and a good many 
members of Congress — Congress being in ses- 
sion at that time. He urged the immediate ter- 
mination of the Treaty with Great Britain rela- 
tive to this country, and begged them to extend 
the Jaws of the United States over Oregon, and 
asked for liberal inducements to emigrants to 
come to this Coast. He was very cordially and 
kindly received by the President and Members 
of Congress, and, without doubt, the Doctor's 
interviews resulted greatly to the benefit of 
Oregon and to this Coast. But his reception at 
the Board for Foreign Missions was not so 
cordial. The Board was inclined to censure him 
for leaving his post. The Doctor came to the 
frontier settlement, urging the citizens to emi- 
grate to the Pacific. He left Independence, 
Missouri, in the month of May, 1843, with an 
emigrant train of about one thousand souls for 
Oregon. With his energy and knowledge of the 
country, he rendered them great assistance in 
fording the many dangerous and rapid streams 
they had to cross, and in finding a wagon road 
through many of the narrow rugged passes of 
the mountains. He arrived at Waiilatpui about 
one year from the time he left, to find his home 
sadly dilapidated, his flouring mill burned. The 
Indians were very hostile to the Doctor for leav- 
ing them, and without doubt, owing to his ab- 
sence, the seeds of assassination were sown by 



312 HOW MNRCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

those haughty Cayuse Indians which resulted in 
his and Mrs. Whitman's death, with many others, 
although it did not take place until four years 
later. 

I remain with great respect, 

A. Lawrence Lovejoy. 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 313 




HEE-OH-KS-TE-KIN.— The Rabbit's Skin Leggins. 

(DRAWN BY GEORGE CATLIN ) 

The only one of the five Nez Perces Chiefs (some say there were 

only four) who visited St. Louis in 1832, that lived to 

return to his people to tell the story. 



314 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 




HCO-A-HCO-A-HCOTES-MIN.— No Horns on his Head. 

This one died on his return journey near the mouth of 

Yellowstone River. 



This is what Catlin says himself: "These two men when I 
painted them, were in beautiful Sioux dresses, which had been 
presented to them in a talk with the Sioux, who treated them very 
kindly, while passing through the Sioux country. These two 
men were part of a delegation that came across the Rocky 
Mountains to St. Louis, a few years since, to inquire for the truth 
of a representation which they said some white man had made 
among them, " that our religion was better than theirs, and that 
they would be all lost if they did not embrace it." Two old and 
venerable men of this party died in St. Louis, and I traveled 
two thousand miles, companions with these two fellows, towards 
their own country, and became much pleased with their manners 
and dispositions. When I first heard the report of the objeet of 
this extraordinary mission across the mountains, I could scarcely 
believe it ; but, on conversing with General Clark, on a future 
occasion, I was fully convinced of the fact." 

See Catlin's Eight Years, and Smithsonian Report for 1885, 
2nd part. 



DR. WHITMAN'S LETTER 



TO THE HON. JAMES M. PORTER, SECRETARY OF WAR, WITH 

A BILL TO BE LAID BEFORE CONGRESS, FOR 

ORGANIZATION OF OREGON. 



The Rev. Myron Eells obtained from the 
original files of the office of the Secretary of 
War two valuable papers. They bear this en- 
endorsement. 

"Marcus Whitman inclosing synopsis of a 
bill, with his views in reference to importance of 
the Oregon Territory, War. 382 — rec. June 22, 
1844. 

To the Hon. James M. Porter, 

Secretary of War. 
Sir: — In compliance with the request 
you did me the honor to make last Winter, while 
in Washington, I herewith transmit to you the 
synopsis of a bill which, if it could be adopted, 
would, according to my experience and observa- 
tion, prove highly conducive to the best interests 

315 



316 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

of the United States generally, to Oregon, 
where I have resided for more than seven years 
as a Missionary, and to the Indian tribes that 
inhabit the immediate country. The Govern- 
ment will now doubtless for the first time be 
apprised through you, or by means of this com- 
munication, of the immense immigration of fam- 
ilies to Oregon which has taken place this year. 
I have, since our interview, been instrumental in 
piloting across the route described in the accom- 
panying bill, and which is the only eligible wagon 
road, no less than three hundred families, con- 
sisting of one thousand persons of both sexes, 
with their wagons, amounting to one hundred 
and twenty, six hundred and ninety-four oxen, 
and seven hundred and seventy-three loose 
cattle. 

The emigrants are trom different States, but 
principally from Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois and 
New York. The majority of them are farmers, 
lured by the prospect of bounty in lands, by the 
reported fertility of the soil, and by the desire to 
be first among those who are planting our insti- 
tutions on the Pacific Coast. Among them are 
artisans of every trade, comprising, with farm- 
ers, the very best material for a new colony. As 
pioneers, these people have undergone incredi- 
ble hardships, and having now safely passed the 
Blue Mountain Range with their wagons and 
effects, have established a durable road from 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 317 

Missouri to Oregon, which will serve to mark 
permanently the route for larger numbers, each 
succeeding year, while they have practically 
demonstrated that wagons drawn by horses or 
oxen can cross the Rocky Mountains to the Co- 
lumbia River, contrary to all the sinister asser- 
tions of all those who pretended it to be impos- 
sible. 

In their slow progress, these persons have 
encountered, as in all former instances, and as 
all succeeding emigrants must, if this or some 
similar bill be not passed by Congress, the con- 
tinual fear of Indian aggression, the actual loss 
through them of horses, cattle and other prop- 
erty, and the great labor of transporting an ade- 
quate amount of provisions for so long a jour- 
ney. The bill herewith proposed would, in a 
great measure, lessen these inconveniences by 
the establishment of posts, which, while having 
the possessed power to keep the Indians in 
check, thus doing away with the necessity of 
military vigilance on the part of the traveler by 
day and night, would be able to furnish them in 
transit with fresh supplies of provisions, dimin- 
ishing the original burdens of the emigrants, and 
finding thus a ready and profitable market for 
their produce — a market that would, in my opin- 
ion, more than suffice to defray all the current 
expenses of such posts. The present party is 
supposed to have expended no less than $2,000 



318 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

at Laramie's and Bridger's Forts, and as much 
more at Fort Hall and Fort Boise, two of the 
Hudson Bay Company's stations. These are 
at present the only stopping places in a journey 
of 2,200 miles, and the only place where addi- 
tional supplies can be obtained, even at the 
enormous rate of charge, called mountain prices, 
i. e., $50 the hundred for flour, and $50 the hun- 
dred for coffee; the same for sugar, powder, etc. 
Many cases of sickness and some deaths took 
place among those who accomplished the jour- 
ney this season, owing, in a great measure, to 
the uninterrupted use of meat, salt and fresh, 
with flour, which constitute the chief articles of 
food they are able to convey on their wagons, 
and this could be obviated by the vegetable pro- 
ductions which the posts in contemplation could 
very profitably afford them. Those who rely 
on hunting as an auxiliary support, are at pres- 
ent unable to have their arms repaired when 
out of order; horses and oxen become tender- 
footed and require to be shod on this long jour- 
ney, sometimes repeatedly, and the wagons re- 
paired in a variety of ways. I mention these as 
valuable incidents to the proposed measure, as it 
will also be found to tend in many other inci- 
dental ways to benefit the migratory population 
of the United States choosing to take this direc- 
tion, and on these accounts, as well as for the 
immediate use of the posts themselves, they 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 319 

ought to be provided with the necessary shops 
and mechanics, which would at the same time 
exhibit the several branches of civilized art to 
the Indians. 

The outlay in the first instance would be but 
trifling. Forts like those of the Hudson Bay 
Company's surrounded by walls enclosing all the 
buildings, and constructed almost entirely of 
adobe, or sun-dried bricks, with stone founda- 
tions only, can be easily and cheaply erected. 

There are very eligible places for as many of 
these as the Government will find necessary, at 
suitable distances, not further than one or two 
hundred miles apart, at the main crossing of the 
principal streams that now form impediments to 
the journey, and consequently well supplied with 
water, having alluvial bottom lands of a rich 
quality, and generally well wooded. If I might 
be allowed to suggest, the best sites for said 
posts, my personal knowledge and observation 
enable me to recommend first, the main crossing 
of the Kansas River, where a ferry would be very 
convenient to the traveler, and profitable to the 
station having it in charge; next, and about 
eighty miles distant, the crossing of Blue River, 
where in times of unusual freshet, a ferry would 
be in like manner useful; next, and distant from 
one hundred to one hundred and fifty miles from 
the last mentioned, the Little Blue,„or Repub- 
lican Fork of the Kansas; next, and from sixty 



320 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

to one hundred miles distant from the last men- 
tioned, the point of intersection of the Platte 
River; next, and from one hundred to one hun- 
dred and fifty miles distant from the last men- 
tioned, crossing of the South Fork of the Platte 
River; next, and about one hundred and eighty 
or two hundred miles distant from the last men- 
tioned, Horseshoe Creek, which is about forty 
miles west of Laramie's Fork in the Black Hills. 
Here is a fine creek for mills and irrigation, good 
land for cultivation, fine pasturage, timber and 
stone for building. Other locations may be had 
along the Platte and Sweetwater, on the Green 
River, or Black's Forks of the Bear River, near 
the great Soda Springs, near Fort Hall, and at 
suitable places down to the Columbia. These 
localities are all of the best description, so situ- 
ated as to hold a ready intercourse with the In- 
dians in their passage to and from the ordinary 
buffalo hunting grounds, and in themselves so 
well situated in all other respects as to be desir- 
able to private enterprise if the usual advantage 
of trade existed. Any of the farms above indi- 
cated would be deemed extremely valuable in 
the States. 

The Government cannot long overlook the 
importance of superintending the savages 
that endanger this line of travel, and that are 
not yet in treaty with it. Some of these are al- 
ready well known to be led by desperate white- 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 321 

men and mongrels, who form bandits in the most 
difficult passes, and are at all times ready to cut 
off some lagging emigrant in the rear of the 
party, or some adventurous one who may pro- 
ceed a few miles in advance, or at night to make 
a descent upon the sleeping camp and carry 
away or kill horses and cattle. This is the case 
even now in the commencement of our western 
immigration, and when it comes to be more gen- 
erally known that large quantities of valuable 
property and considerable sums of money are 
yearly carried over this desolate region, it is 
feared that an organized banditti will be insti- 
tuted. The posts in contemplation would effect- 
ually counteract this. For the purpose they 
need not, or ought not, to be military establish- 
ments. The trading posts in this country have 
never been of such a character, and yet with 
very few men in them, have for years kept the 
surrounding Indians in the most pacific disposi- 
tion, so that the traveler feels secure from mo- 
lestation upon approaching Fort Laramie, Bridg- 
ets Fort, Fort Hall, etc., etc. The same can be 
obtained without any considerable expenditure by 
the Government, while by investing the officers 
in charge with competent authority, all evil-dis- 
posed white men, refugees from justice, or dis- 
charged vagabonds from trading posts might be 
easily removed from among the Indians and 
sent to the appropriate States for trial. The 
21 



322 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

Hudson Bay Company's system of rewards 
among the savages would soon enable the posts 
to root out these desperadoes. A direct and 
friendly intercourse with all the tribes, even to 
the Pacific, might be thus maintained; the Gov- 
ernment would become more intimately ac- 
quainted with them, and they with the Gov- 
ernment, and instead of sending to the State 
courts a manifestly guilty Indian to be ar- 
raigned before a distant tribunal and acquitted 
for the want of testimony, by the technicalities of 
lawyers and of the law unknown to them, and 
sent back into the wilderness loaded with pre- 
sents, as an inducement to further crime, the 
post should be enabled to execute summary jus- 
tice, as if the criminal had been already con- 
demned by his tribe, because the tribe will be 
sure to deliver up none but the party whom they 
know to be guilty. They will in that way receive 
the trial of their peers, and secure within them- 
selves to all intents and purposes, if not techni- 
cally the trial by jury, yet the spirit of that trial. 
There are many powers which ought to reside in 
some person on this extended route 4ov the con- 
venience and even necessity of the public. 

In this the emigrant and the people of Ore- 
gon are no more interested than the resident in- 
habitant of the States. At present no person is 
authorized to administer an oath, or legally at- 
test a fact, from the western line of Missouri to 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 323 

the Pacific. The immigrant cannot dispose of 
his property at home, although an opportunity 
ever so advantageous to him should occur after 
he passes the western border of Missouri. No 
one can here make a legal demand and protest 
of a promissory note or bill of exchange. No 
one can secure the valuable testimony of a moun- 
taineer, or an immigrating witness after he has 
entered this, at present, lawless country. Causes 
do exist and will continually arise, in which the 
private rights of citizens are, and will be, seri- 
ously prejudiced by such an utter absence of 
legal authority. A contraband trade from Mex- 
ico, the introduction from that country of 
liquors to be sold among the Indians west of the 
Kansas River, is already carried on with the 
mountain trappers, and very soon the teas, silks, 
nankeens, spices, camphor and opium of the 
East Indies will find their way, duty free, 
through Oregon, across the mountains and into 
the States, unless Custom House officers along 
this line find an interest in intercepting them. 

Your familiarity with the Government policy, 
duties and interest render it unnecessary for me 
to more than hint at the several objects intended 
by the enclosed bill, and any enlargement upon 
the topics here suggested as inducements to its 
adoption would be quite superfluous, if not im- 
pertinent. The very existence of such a system 
as the one above recommended suggest the util- 



324 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

ity of post offices and mail arrangements, which 
it. is the wish of all who now live in Oregon to 
have granted them; and I need only add that 
contracts for this purpose will be readily taken 
at reasonable rates for transporting the mail 
across from Missouri to the mouth of the Col- 
umbia in forty days, with fresh horses at each of 
the contemplated posts. The ruling policy pro- 
posed regards the Indians as the police of the 
country, who are to be relied upon to keep the 
peace, not only for themselves, but to repel law- 
less white men and prevent banditti, under the 
solitary guidance of the Superintendents of the 
several posts, aided by a well directed system to 
induce the punishment of crime. It will only be 
after the failure of these means to procure the 
delivery or punishment of violent, lawless and 
savage acts of aggression, that a band or tribe 
should be regarded as conspirators against the 
peace, or punished accordingly by force of arms. 
Hoping that these suggestions may meet your 
approbation, and conduce to the future interest 
of our growing country, I have the honor to be, 
Honorable Sir, 

Your obedient servant, 

Marcus Whitman. 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 325 



COPY OF PROPOSED BILL PREPARED BY DR. MARCUS 

WHITMAN IN 1843 AND SENT TO THE 

SECRETARY OF WAR. 

A bill to promote safe intercourse with the 
Territory of Oregon, to suppress violent acts of 
aggression on the part of certain Indian tribes 
west of the Indian Territory, Neocho, better pro- 
tect the revenue, for the transportation of the 
mail and for other purposes. 

SYNOPSIS OF THE ACT. 

Section i. — To be enacted by the Senate and 
House of Representatives of the United States 
of America, in^Congress assembled, that from 
and after the passage of this act, there shall be 
established at suitable distances, and in conven- 
ient and proper places, to be selected by the 
President, a chain of agricultural posts or farm- 
ing stations, extending at intervals from the 
present most usual crossing, of the Kansas 
River, west of the western boundary of the State 
of Missouri, thence ascending the Platte River 
on the Southern border, thence through the val- 
ley of the Sweetwater River to Fort Hall, and 
thence to settlements of the Willamette in the 
Territory of Oregon. Which said posts will have 
for their object to set examples of civilized in- 
dustry to the several Indian tribes, to keep them 
in proper subjection to the laws of the United 



326 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

States, to suppress violent and lawless acts along 
the said line of the frontier, to facilitate the pas- 
sage of troops and munitions of war into and 
out of the said Territory of Oregon, and the 
transportation of the mail as hereinafter pro- 
vided. 

Section 2. — And be it further enacted, that 
there shall reside at each of said Posts, one 
Superintendent having charge thereof, with full 
power to carry into effect the provisions of this 
Act, subject always to such instructions as the 
President may impose; one Deputy Superintend- 
ent to act in like manner in case of death, re- 
moval or absence of the Superintendent, and such 
artificers and laborers, not exceeding twenty in 
number, as the said Superintendent may deem 
necessary for the conduct and safety of said Posts, 
all of whom shall be subject to disappointment 
and liable to removal. 

Section j. — And be it further enacted, that it 
shall be the duty of the President to cause to be 
erected, at each of the said Posts, buildings suit- 
able for the purpose herein contemplated: to- 
wit, one main dwelling house, one storehouse, 
one blacksmith's and one gunsmith's shop, one 
carpenter shop, with such and so many other 
buildings, for storing the products and supplies 
of said Posts as he from time to time may deem 
expedient. To supply the same with all neces- 
sary mechanical and agricultural implements, 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 327 

to perform the labor incident tnereto, and with all 
other articles he may judge requisite and proper 
for the safety, comfort and defense thereof. 

To cause said Posts in his discretion to be vis- 
ited by detachments of the troops stationed on 
the Western frontier, to suppress through said 
Posts the sale of munitions of war to the In- 
dian tribes in case of hostilities, and annually to 
lay before Congress, at its general session, full re 
turns, verified by the oaths of the several Super- 
intendents, of the several acts by them performed 
and of the condition of said Posts, with the in- 
come and expenditures growing out of the same 
respectively. 

Section 4. — And be it further enacted, that the 
said Superintendents shall be appointed by the 
President by and with the advice and consent of 
the Senate for the term of four years, with a sal- 
ary of two hundred dollars payable out of any 
moneys in the treasury not otherwise appropri- 
ated; that they shall respectively take an oath 
before the District Judge of the United States for 
the Western District of Missouri, faithfully to 
discharge the duties imposed on them in and by 
the provisions of this Act, and give a bond to the 
President of the United States and to his succes- 
sors in office and assigns, and with sufficient 
security to be approved by the said Judge in at 
least the penalty of twenty-five thousand dollars, 
to indemnify the President or his successors oi 



328 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

assigns for any unlawful acts by them performed, 
or injuries committed by virtue of their offices, 
which said bonds may at any time be assigned for 
prosecution against the said respective Superin- 
tendents and their sureties upon application to the 
said Judge at the instance of the United States Dis- 
trict Attorney or of any private party aggrieved. 

Section 5. — And be it further enacted, that it 
shall be the duty of said Superintendents to cause 
the soil adjacent to said Posts, in extent not ex- 
ceeding 640 acres, to be cultivated in a farmer- 
like manner and to produce such articles of cul- 
ture as in their judgment shall be deemed the 
most profitable and available for the mainten- 
ance of said Posts, for the supply of troops and 
other Government agents which may from time 
to time resort thereto, and to render the pro- 
ducts aforesaid adequate to defraying all the 
expenses of labor in and about said Posts, and 
the salary of the said Deputy Superintendent, 
without resort to the Treasury of the United 
States, remitting to the Secretary of the Treasury 
yearly a sworn statement of the same, with the 
surplus moneys, if any there shall be. 

Section 6. — And be it further enacted, tnat the 
said several Superintendents of Posts shall, ex- 
officio, be Superintendents of Indian Affairs west 
of the Indian Territory, Neocho, subordinate to 
and under the full control of the Commissioner- 
General of Indian Affairs at Washington. That 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 329 

they shall, by virtue of their offices, be conserv- 
ators oi: the peace, with full powers to the extent 
hereinafter prescribed, in all cases of crimes and 
misdemeanors, whether committed by citizens of 
the United States or by Indians within the fron- 
tier line aforesaid. That they shall have power 
to administer oaths, to be valid in the several 
courts of the United States, to perpetuate testi- 
mony to be used in said courts, to take acknowl- 
edgements of deeds and other specialties in writ- 
ing, to take probate of wills and the testaments 
executed upon the said frontier, of which the 
testators shall have died in transit between the 
State of Missouri and the Territory of Oregon, 
and to do and certify all notarial acts, and to 
perform the ceremony of marriage, with as legal 
effect as if the said several acts above enumer- 
ated had been performed by the magistrates of 
any of the States having power to perform the 
service. That they shall have power to arrest 
and remove from the line aforesaid all disorderly 
white persons, and all persons exciting the In- 
dians to hostilities, and to surrender up all fugi- 
tives from justice upon the requisition of the 
Governor of any of the States; that they shall 
have power to demand of the several tribes with- 
in the said frontier line, the surrender of any In- 
dian or Indians committing acts in contradiction 
of the laws of the United States, and in case of 
such surrender, to inflict punishment thereon, 



330 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

according to the tenor and effect of said laws, 
without further trial, presuming such offending 
Indian or Indians to have received the trial and 
condemnation of the tribe to which he or they 
may belong; to intercept and seize all articles of 
contraband trade, whether introduced into their 
jurisdiction in violation of the acts imposing du- 
ties on imports, or of the acts to regulate trade 
and intercourse with the several Indian tribes, 
to transmit the same to the Marshal of the 
Western District of Missouri, together with the 
proofs necessary for the confiscation thereof, 
and in every such case the Superintendent shall 
be entitled to receive one-half the sale value of 
the said confiscated articles, and the other half 
be disposed of as in like cases arising under the 
existing revenue laws. 

Section 7. — And be it further enacted, that 
the several Superintendents shall have and keep 
at their several Posts, seals of office for the 
legal authentication of their public acts herein 
enumerated, and that the said seals shall have 
as a device the spread-eagle, with the words, "U. 
S. Superintendendency of the Frontier," en- 
graved thereon. 

Section 8. — -And be it further enacted, that 
the said Superintendents shall be entitled, in ad- 
dition to the salary hereinbefore granted, the 
following perquisites and fees of office, to-wit: 
For the acknowledgement of all deeds and spe- 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 331 

cialties, the sum of one dollar; for the adminis- 
tration of all oaths, twenty-five cents; for the 
authentication of all copies of written instru- 
ments, one dollar; for the perpetuation of all 
testimony to be used in the United States courts, 
by the folio, fifty cents; for the probate of all 
wills and testaments, by the folio, fifty cents; for 
all other writing done, by the folio, fifty cents; 
for solemnizing marriages, two dollars, including 
the certificate to be given to the parties; for the 
surrender of fugitives from justice, in addition 
to the necessary costs and expenses of arrest 
and detention, which shall be verified to the de- 
manding Governor by the affidavit of the Super- 
intendent, ten dollars. 

Section p.— And be it further enacted; that 
the said Superintendents shall, by virtue of their 
offices, be postmasters at the several stations for 
which they were appointed, and as such, shall be 
required to facilitate the transportation of mail 
to and from the Territory of Oregon and the 
nearest postoffice within the State of Missouri, 
subject to all the regulations of the Postoffice De- 
partment, and with all the immunities and priv- 
ileges of the postmasters in the several States, 
except that no additional compensation shall be 
allowed for such services; and it is hereby made 
the duty of the Postmaster General to cause 
proposals to be issued for the transportation of 
the mail along the line of said Posts to and from 



332 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

sard Territory within six months after the pas- 
sage of this Act. 

Section 10. And be it further enacted, that 

the sum of thousand dollars be, and the 

same is hereby appropriated out of any moneys 
in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, for 
the -purpose of carrying into effect the several 
provisions of this act. 



DR. WHITMAN S SUGGESTIONS TO THE SECRETARY OF 

WAR, AND TO THE COMMISSIONERS ON INDIAN 

AFFAIRS IN OREGON, IN THE U. S. SENATE 

AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

DATED OCTOBER l6, 1847. 

Perhaps the last work or writing of a public 
character done by Dr. Whitman, bears the date 
of Waiilatpui, October 16th, 1847. It was only 
one month before the massacre, and addressed 
as follows : 

To the Honorable the Secretary of War, to the 
Committees on Indian Affairs and Oregon, in 
the Senate and House of Representatives of 
the United States, the following stiggestions 
are respectfdly submitted : 

1st. That all Stations of the United States 
for troops be kept upon the borders of some 
State or Territory, when designed for the pro- 
tection and regulation of Indian territory. 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 333 

2nd. That a line of Posts be established along 
the traveled route to Oregon, at a distance, so 
far as practicable, of not more than 50 miles. 
That these Posts be located so as to afford the 
best opportunity for agriculture and grazing, to 
facilitate the production of provisions, and the 
care of horses and cattle, for the use and support 
of said Posts, and to furnish supplies to all 
passers through Indian territory, especially to 
mail-carriers and troops. 

These Posts should be placed wherever a 
bridge or ferry would be required to facilitate 
the transport of the mail, and travel of troops 
or immigrants through the country. 

In all fertile places, these Posts would support 
themselves, and give facilities for the several 
objects just named in transit. The other Posts, 
situated where the soil would not admit of culti- 
vation, would still be useful, as they would afford 
the means of taking care of horses, and other 
facilities of transporting the mails. 

These Posts could be supplied with provisions 
from others in the vicinity. A few large Posts 
in the more fertile regions could supply those 
more in the mountains. 

On the other hand, military Posts can only be 
well supplied when near the settlements. In this 
way all transports for the supply of interior 
military Posts would be superseded. 

The number of men at these Posts might vary 
from five to twenty-five. 



334 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

In the interior the buildings may be built with 
adobies, that is, large, unburnt bricks ; and in 
form and size should much resemble the common 
Indian Trading Posts, with outer walls and 
bastions. 

They would thus afford the same protection 
in any part of the territory as the common 
Trading Posts. 

If provided with a small amount of goods, 
such goods could be bartered with the Indians 
for necessary supplies, as well as, on proper 
occasions, given to chiefs as a reward for punish- 
ing those who disturb or offend against the peace 
of the territory, 

By these means the Indians would become the 
protectors of those Stations. 

At the same time by being under one General 
Superintendent, subject to the inspection of the 
Government, the Indians may be concentrated 
under one genenal influence. 

By such a superintendence the Indians would 
be prevented from fleeing from one place to 
another to secrete themselves from justice. By 
this simple arrangement all the need of troops in 
the interior would be obviated, unless in some 
instance when the Indians fail to co-operate with 
the Superintendent of the Post or Posts, for the 
promotion of peace. 

When troops shall be called for, to visit the 
interior, the farming Posts will be able to furnish 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 335 

them with supplies in passing so as to make their 
movements speedy and efficient. 

A code of laws for the Indian territory might 
constitute as civil magistrates the first, or 
second, in command of these Posts. 

The same arrangement would be equally 
well adapted for the respective routes to Cali- 
fornia and New Mexico. 

Many reasons may be urged for the estab- 
lishment of these Posts, among which are the 
following: 

ist. By means of such Posts, all acts of the 
Indians would be under a full and complete 
inspection. AJ1 cases of murder, theft, or other 
outrage would be brought to light and the proper 
punishment inflicted. 

2nd. In most cases this may be done by 
giving the Chiefs a small fee that they may either 
punish the offenders themselves, or deliver them 
up to the commander of the Post. In such cases 
it should be held that their peers have adjudged 
them guilty before punishment is inflicted. 

3rd. By means of these Posts it will become 
safe and easy for the smallest number to pass 
and repass from Oregon to the States; and with a 
civil magistrate at each Station, all idle wander- 
ing white men without passports can be sent out 
of the territory. 

4th. In this way all banditti for robbing the 
mails, or travellers, would be prevented, as well 



336 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

as all vagabonds removed from among the 
Indians. 

5th. Immigrants now lose horses and other 
stock by the Indians, commencing from the 
border of the States to the Willamette. It is 
much to the praise of our countrymen that they 
bear so long with the Indians when our Govern- 
ment has done so little to enable them to pass in 
safety. 

For one man to lose five or six horses is not 
a rare occurrence, which loss is felt heavily, 
when most of the family are compelled to walk, 
to favor a reduced and failing team. 

6th. The Indians along the line take courage 
from the forbearance of the immigrants. The 
timid Indians on the Columbia, have this year in 
open day, attacked several parties of wagons, 
numbering from two to seven, and robbed them, 
being armed with guns, bows and arrows, knives 
and axes. Mr. Glenday from St. Charles, Mo., 
the bearer of this communication to the States, 
with Mr. Bear, his companion, rescued seven 
wagons from beings plundered, and the people 
from gross insults, rescuing one woman, when the 
Indians were in the act of taking all the clothes 
from her person. The men were mostly stripped 
of their shirts and pantaloons at the time. 

7th. The occasional supplies to passing 
immigrants, as well as the aid which may be 
afforded to the sick and needy, are not the least 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 337 

of the important results to follow from these 
establishments. 

A profitable exchange to the Posts and immi- 
grants, as also to others journeying through the 
country, can be made by exchanging worn out 
horses and cattle for fresh ones. 

8th. It scarcely need be mentioned what ad- 
vantage the Government will derive by a similar 
exchange for the transport of the mail, as also 
for the use of troops passing through. 

gth. To suppress the use of ardent spirits 
among the Indians it will be requisite to regard 
the giving or furnishing of it in any manner as 
a breach of the laws and peace of the territory. 

All Superintendents of Posts, traders, and re- 
sponsible persons, should be charged on oath, 
that they will not sell, give or furnish in any 
manner, ardent spirits to the Indians. 

ioth. Traders should be regarded by reason 
of the license they have to trade in the territory, 
as receiving a privilege, and therefore should be 
required to give and maintain good credentials 
of character. For this reason they may be re- 
quired to send in the testimony of all their clerks 
and assistants of all ranks, to show under the 
solemnity of an oath, that the laws in this re- 
spect have not been violated or evaded. If at 
any time it became apparent to the Superinten- 
dent of any Post that the laws have been vio- 
lated, he might be required to make full inquiry 

23 



338 HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 

of all in any way connected with or assisting in 
the trade, to ascertain whether the laws were 
broken or their breach connived at. This will 
avail for the regular licensed trader. 

nth. For illicit traders and smugglers it 
will suffice to instruct Commanders of Posts to 
offer a reward to the Indians for the safe deliv- 
ery of any and all such persons as bring liquors 
among them, together with the liquors thus 
brought. 

It is only on the borders of the respective 
States and Territories that any interruption will 
be found in the operation of these principles. 

12th. Here also a modification of the same 
principle enacted by the several States and Terri- 
tories might produce equally happy results. 

ijth. The mail may, with a change of horses 
every fifty miles, be carried at the rate of one 
hundred to one hundred and fifty miles in twenty- 
four hours. 

14th. The leading reason in favor of adopt- 
ing the aforesaid regulations would be, that by 
this means the Indians would become our faith- 
ful allies. In fact, they will be the best possible 
police for such a territory. This police can 
safely be relied upon when under a good super- 
vision. Troops will only be required to correct 
their faults in cases of extreme misconduct. 

15th. In closing, I would remark that I have 
conversed with many of the principal fur-traders 



HOW MARCUS WHITMAN SAVED OREGON. 339 

of the American and Hudson Bay Companies, 
all of whom agree that the several regulations 
suggested in this communication will accomplish 
the object proposed, were suitable men appointed 
for its management and execution. 
Respectfully yours, 

Marcus Whitman. 
Waiilatpui, Oct. 1 6th, 1847. 



